Bite the Bullet
by Habarra
Summary: After 4 friends leave trainer school, they all separate and go on their own adventures. But the death of a close friend under mysterious circumstances, brings them back together to solve the puzzle. Rated M for sexual content, explicit language, and violence.
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N: Hey everyone! I'm new to the FanFic writer community and I decided to write a thing. This is my first time doing this thing, so please be gentle. I don't mind negative criticism as long as it's not aggressive, please help me be a better writer and don't shut me down. That being said, please enjoy!)**

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Chapter 1: There's No Place Like Home

The sun is shining brightly over the hills of Pallet Town. A young raven haired 10-year old is still fast asleep, eagerly dreaming of the day he can become a Pokémon trainer. He turns over in his bed, gently smiling with the thought of beginning his own journey. The sunlight catches his eye and slowly wakes up.

 _"Man, I get to be a trainer today…"_ he thinks to himself. _"WAIT!"_

A sudden realization hits him and he rushes out of bed. He's already late to get his starter Pokémon! He rushes out of bed, still in his pajamas, without a second thought. He sprints down the dirt road that leads up to Professor Oak's ranch. As he approaches, he sees 6 figures standing in front of the gate; 3 humanoid figures and 3 small creatures.

"Took you long enough Ashy boy!" yells one of the figures, a cocky smile on his face.

One of the other figures pushes the gate open for the rushing child.

"Piss off Gary! I'm late!" he yells back, sprinting through the gate and into Professor Oak's lab.

As he bursts through the door, an old gray-haired man is standing beside a machine. He just smiles as Ash catches his breath. He tosses Ash a bottle of water, the smile still ever present.

"I had a feeling this would happen Ash. But I don't see why you rushed, your Pokémon has been reserved for you. Besides, it's only you and the other 3 outside," Oak said.

"I'm sorry Professor Oak, I guess I got excited," Ash said, finally catching his breath.

The professor just smiled and shook his head. He reached over the machine and grabbed the only Pokeball in the machine. The red and white sphere had a lightning bolt engraved on it, indicating the Pokémon held within.

"Just take it boy, you've waited long enough. He's yours," Oak said.

He extends his hand out, waiting for Ash to take it. Ash just stares, eyes widening. This was the day he was waiting for, the day he always dreamed of. He slowly reaches out and grabs the ball. He thumbs the ball, feeling the lightning bolt engraved on the front before throwing it into the air, releasing the Pokémon within.

With a crack of white light, a small yellow rodent appears. It quickly shakes itself and makes a face of discontent being held captive by such a small space. The small rodent turns around and immediately smiles seeing who is standing behind him. Ash holds his arms open and the rodent jumps into them before rubbing his cheek on Ash's.

"Hey Pikachu, big bad man Oak put you back in your ball huh?" Ash said playfully.

"Pika pi…" Pikachu responded, clearly upset by that fact.

He hops on to Ash's shoulder and glares at Oak evilly. Oak looks back nervously, holding his hands up in self-defense.

"Okay, let's calm down now, there's no reason to get feisty, it's all a part of the tradition," Oak says defensively.

Pikachu relaxes, his smile returning to his face. Oak sighs and turns to the table to his left and grabs a small red device.

"I'm sure you already know what this is Ash. Here's your Pokedex," Oak says while handing him the Pokedex.

Ash, already being familiar with the device, attempts to put it in his pocket and subsequently drops it due to the lack of pockets in his pajamas pants.

"Oops…" Ash says nervously.

Oak just sighs and picks it up for him.

"Go home and change boy. You have a long 6 years ahead of you."

"6 years? What are you talking about?" asks Ash in a confused manner.

"After many young trainers have been attacked, robbed, and killed, the league requires that new trainers take at least 6 years in a 'New Trainer School' that teaches survival skills, basic hand-to-hand combat, and other general ideas. Now you should get going before registration closes tomorrow." Oak says, gently pushing Ash and Pikachu towards the door.

As soon as Ash reaches outside, he turns around to say his goodbyes.

"Alright Professor Oak, tha-," He is cut off by a door being slammed in his face. "Alright then…"

He turns around and sees that his friends have been watching the whole exchange. He slowly walks down the hill towards the rest of the group. Professor Oak watches Ash leave from the window, unknown to the young boy.

"I finally got rid of that Pikachu. I don't know how that boy gets along with him so well," Oak says to himself.

As Ash is about to leave his view, Pikachu turns around from atop Ash's shoulder and sends a mischievous wink to Oak in the window. Oak immediately panics and drops the curtains to conceal his face from the mouse Pokémon. The whole exchange goes unnoticed by Ash and the group. The pair finally reach the bottom of the hill to where the rest of the group is waiting for him. Ash noticed that everyone returned their Pokemon to their ball already.

"Took you long enough, Ashy boy," Gary says.

"Shut up Gary. Besides, you said that already," Ash says.

Gary just closes his eyes and huffs with the same cocky grin on his face. One of the other friends takes a step closer to Ash with a cute smile on her face. She has a white hat on with a pink ribbon around the brim that contained her long brunette hair. Her teal blouse wraps her torso loosely with a red skirt reaching to about her knees, her knee high socks matching her shirt. She stares directly into Ash's eyes with a fond expression.

"Hey Ash, Pikachu looks really happy," the girl said while scratching Pikachu behind his long ears. Pikachu let out a squeal of content.

"Yeah, I guess he's happy to start this adventure too. Speaking of that, what's up with this news about a Trainer School?" Ash asked.

The girl stepped back and Gary's eyes shot open with a confused look.

"You mean you don't know about it?" He asked with an unbelieving tone.

"No, I haven't. Professor Oak told me all about it," Ash responded.

"So you haven't registered yet?! Let's go!" the girl yells, grabbing Ash by the wrist, effectively dragging him down the path. Ash yanks his wrist free and starts to rub it from the death grip it just received.

"Now hold on Leaf, I need to go home to change first," Ash responds hastily. Leaf just rubs the back of her head embarrassed.

"Hey Ash, think fast!" Gary yells.

Without getting a chance to react, the fourth person tosses a backpack at Ash's face, knocking him to the floor. Pikachu jumps off Ash's shoulder in the nick of time onto Leaf's head, preventing him from falling with Ash.

"Thanks Red…" Ash says painfully.

Red just smiles. Ash rolls his eyes then opens the backpack up. Pikachu hops off Leaf's head back on Ash's shoulder and takes a look in the bag as well.

"Your mom came by earlier and gave us this bag. She knew you'd forget to get up early," Leaf said cheerfully.

"Typical Ashy boy," Gary states.

Ash glares back at Gary, while Leaf gives Gary an unamused look.

The pair on the floor see a change of clothes and a hat within the bag. Pikachu, however, detects something else. He dives into the bag, his lower half of his tiny body sticking out of the bag. Pikachu emerges with Ash's hat on his head and a little Ziploc bag with some treats in his mouth. Ash smiles and takes the hat off Pikachu's head, placing it on his own head and scratching Pikachu behind his ears, similarly to how Leaf did just a few minutes ago. Pikachu lets out another content squeal, causing the bag to drop to the ground. Ash picks it up, revealing a label with the words 'for Pikachu' on the side, clearly written by his mother. He opens up the bag to which Pikachu dives for and begins devouring.

Ash takes out the clothes and gives it a look over. The clothes his mother left were a plain black tee, a light blue jacket with white sleeves, baggy jeans, black and white sneakers, and green fingerless gloves. He stands up and begins trying to take off his shirt, but is stopped by the group.

"Bro, what is wrong with you?!" Gary yells in disgust.

Leaf looks away blushing, while Red just stares with an awkward face.

"What? It's not like you guys haven't seen me with a shirt on, we've known each other for years," Ash responds.

It's true, the group met when they were all the age of 5. They met at Oak's summer camp many years ago under interesting circumstances. It all started with a "friendly" interaction between Ash and Gary.

 _Flashback_

 _Ash is standing in the middle of Oak's ranch with a Pikachu at his feet._

 _"Hey buddy, you wanna do something fun?" Ash asked the yellow creature with a mischievous grin on his face._

 _Pikachu looked up at him, reflecting the same grin. He already knew what they were going to do. He hopped onto the young boy's head and pointed to a group of Tauros. On top of one the Tauros was none other than Gary Oak. Ash ran and hid behind the bush closest to the herd, peeking his head out just to find out where Gary was situated. He had his back to Ash and Pikachu._

 _"Alright buddy, do your thing," Ash whispered._

 _Pikachu silently nodded and walked through the herd until he reached under the Tauros Gary was sitting on. Pikachu picked up some dirt in his paws and rubbed it in different places on his body. He stepped out from under the Tauros, faking pain. Gary spotted Pikachu, immediately hopping down to tend to it._

 _"Hey there little guy, are you hurt?" Gary asked._

 _Pikachu's expression changed to one of happiness and shook his head. Confused, Gary decided to reach for him to pick him up. Once Gary had him level with his face, Pikachu lifted his arms in celebration._

 _"Huh?" Gary said confused._

 _"Pika!"_

 _Immediately Gary was blinded by a bright light and dropped Pikachu to tend to his eyes. Pikachu scurried away, knowing what came next._

 _The Tauros were also been blinded and began panicking. One of them scooped Gary blindly and toss him onto the back of another Tauros. The herd began running in different directions in panic. Gary was nearly thrown off the one he was unintentionally thrown on and decided to hold on for dear life instead of rubbing his eyes. His blurry vision could barely make out the figure of a little girl._

 _The Tauros was running straight at her. Gary widened his eyes to see the girl dancing in the field, unaware of the danger that was literally about to hit her._

 _"LEAF LOOK OUT!" Gary yelled._

 _Leaf turned around and her eyes widen, seeing a stampeding Tauros about 10 feet away from her. Frozen with fear, she held her ground. Just as she was about to get demolished, a boy tackled her out of the way._

 _As soon as they were safe, Leaf opened her eyes to see Gary being thrown off the Tauros on to the ground. She looked at her savior and saw the enraged face of her twin brother, Red. Red removed himself from Leaf, not even helping her up. He picked Gary up by his navy blue long-sleeved shirt, lifting him off the ground. Gary was shocked to see that another 5-year-old could lift him off the ground._

 _"It's not my fault! I didn't start the stampede! It was that Pikachu!" Gary pleaded._

 _Some sort of realization hits Red and he turned around. He saw Leaf, sitting on the ground with fear still on her face. He wasn't looking at Leaf, however, he was looking at Ash and Pikachu, both rolling on the ground laughing._

 _Ash was the only person that got along with a Pikachu._

 _Red dropped Gary, dirtying his jeans, and made his way to Ash, helping Leaf up and brushing dirt off her along the way. Gary and Leaf followed Red at a distance, not knowing what was about to happen. When Red reached Ash, he just stood over the rolling figure with his arms folded. Ash saw the angry boy standing above him, he got up._

 _"What's up Red?" Ash asked, nonchalantly._

 _Without a word, Red stepped to the side, revealing Leaf with fear still in her eyes._

 _"Oh did that Tauros almost hit her? I'm sorry," Ash said sincerely._

 _Red didn't verbally respond and punched Ash in the nose instead. Pikachu saw this and recoiled in fear._

 _"What's the big idea! I said I was sorry!" Ash yelled, clutching his nose._

 _Red reached back to punch him again, but Leaf grabbed his arm. Red looked back at Leaf, surprised._

 _"Stop it Red, you told mom you'd behave," Leaf said, the fear gone from her eyes._

 _Red relaxed and looked back at Ash, who had slightly recovered. His nose wasn't bleeding, so he decided he would let it slide. Red extended his hand out, a sorry expression on his face. Pikachu jumped on to the young boy's head while he looked at Red's hand and narrowed his eyes._

 _"Fine, I forgive you," Ash said after a minute of staring._

 _Red gave Ash an extremely surprised look when Ash shook his hand. Ash just smiled, enjoying the confused look Red had, but he was sincere with his forgiveness. Just then, Ash's stomach rumbled loudly. He removed his hand from Red's and scratched the back of his head nervously._

 _"You guys wanna go inside and get some food? I'm a little hungry," Ash asked._

 _Red smiled and nodded, Leaf just smiled, but Gary looked disgusted._

 _"After that, you want me to be your friend? You're lucky if I don't tell gramps what you did!" Gary said._

 _"You don't have to come, Gary. We already know you sit by yourself anyway," Ash responded cheekily._

 _Gary was going to respond, but couldn't; he was right, he was lonely. Without much of a choice, he reluctantly accepted._

 _"Fine, I'll come, but don't think this is an everyday thing!" Gary responded._

 _Boy was he wrong._

 _Flashback end_

"Just go change behind a tree or something," Leaf suggests still blushing.

Red notices her expression, but just brushes it off.

Ash groans and reluctantly walks behind the tree. He takes his shirt off and replaces it with the black one his mom left him. As he removes his pants, Leaf leans over to try and peek at Ash from where she stands.

Gary, deep in thought about how the group came to be, doesn't notice while Red observes Leaf closely. He taps her on the shoulder, breaking her from her trance. He stares directly into her eyes while narrowing his.

She realizes she was caught and looks away nervously. Red continues to stare at Leaf, wondering what she was doing. Leaf was feeling Red's eyes pierce the back of her head.

 _"Come on Ash, hurry up!"_ she thought to herself.

Just then, Ash came out from behind the tree, putting his jacket on. Leaf let out a sigh of relief when Red looked away from her.

"Okay, I'm ready, let's go," Ash says.

Ash stood in front of Red, both noticing the similarities in their outfits. They both wore red and white hats and black tees, but Red's jacket was red and black instead of Ash's blue and white one.

"Come on, lets hurry!" Leaf says, grabbing Ash by the wrist again.

This time, she waited for Ash to be ready. Ash turned around and saw Pikachu finishing up what was left in the bag. Ash silently signals Pikachu, who jumps up on Ash's shoulder. He turns back around, letting Leaf know he's ready to go. She smiles and starts dragging him once again. Both Gary and Red shake their head and run after the pair.

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 **A/N: That's Chapter 1 guys! Pretty short chapter if you ask me, but I felt if I added where I started Chapter 2, it would flow weird. Anyway, please leave _constructive_ criticism, I need it as a new writer. Don't be afraid to review it. I'll try to push chapters out at least once a week, if time permits. Thanks again readers, see you next week!**


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N: Hey guys, chapter 2 is here! I dropped this earlier than I predicted because I felt the first chapter was pretty boring. I feel like this chapter is appropriately lengthed, so most chapters will be about this long, maybe longer. Not much to say here, so please enjoy!)**

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Chapter 2: School Will Forever Suck

A few months have passed since the group enrolled into Trainer's School. It's now August and today is the first day of school.

Ash was up bright and early, making sure not to make the same mistake again. Pikachu, however, was still asleep on Ash's pillow. This gave Ash time to contemplate his "summer vacation."

After they enrolled, nothing extravagant happened. He was already familiar with everyone's starter, just as Ash had known Pikachu for years, the others had known theirs for years as well; Leaf had a Bulbasaur, Red had a Charmander, and Gary had a Squirtle. None of them evolved because they haven't been in serious battles that upped any of their experience.

Ash and Pikachu still played pranks on people, utilizing the same trick that almost killed Leaf 5 years ago. The thought brought a smile to his face, remembering the first day they all hung out together. After that day, they were pretty much inseparable.

This caused his mind to wander to the fact that school was starting in a few hours. He looks down at the uniform that he was going to put on later that day and sighs.

 _"I guess it's all a part of life. I've never had to go to school before; I wonder what it's like."_

He reaches over and scratches Pikachu behind his ears, waking the sleeping Pokemon without a fight. Pikachu quickly shook himself awake and hops off the bunkbed.

He sits by the door and waits, as Ash hops down and opens the door for him. Ash watches Pikachu scurry down the hall in search of food while he goes to use the bathroom.

During his morning routine, he smells food cooking from his kitchen. However, he became confused, he didn't remember his mom leaving her room.

He returns to his room and grabs a steel bat from his room and silently creeps downstairs. He sees Pikachu eating at the table, a large stack of pancakes in front of him.

This made him even more confused: Pikachu knew not to take food from strangers, even if it was from his own home.

He sees a female figure at his stove, long brunette hair falling down her back. He thought it was Leaf, but she was without her hat, so he brushed off the thought. He pulls that bat into the air, ready to swing, when the girl turns around to put more on the table.

Turned out to be Leaf after all.

"Oh hey Ash, I didn't know you were awake. We couldn't sleep so we came over to your house and… snuck in…" Leaf says.

"We?" Ash asks, lowering the bat.

Leaf points over to the TV in the living room. As Ash looks over, he sees a hand pop up from behind the couch holding a red hat with half of a white Pokeball on it and a brown boot fly through the air from the couch hidden behind the wall.

 _"Well it looks like Red and Gary are here too."_ Ash thinks to himself.

"Morning guys. You know you could've called me and asked to let you in," Ash says.

Gary and Red appear in the doorway, each leaning on one side.

"Yeah but where's the fun in that?" asks Gary.

Red just smiles in agreement. Ash gives it a thought then decides he would've done the same.

They all sat down at the table while Leaf brought in the last of the pancakes. As the group began eating, Pikachu finished off what was left of his stack.

"You know, for a small Pokemon like him, he eats a lot," says Gary.

Pikachu let out a small burp that expressed his content with the meal, while drawing everyone's eyes to him. He realizes he's being watched and laughs nervously.

"Well I'm glad he likes my cooking," Leaf says, trying to hold down a laugh.

She turns back to the person sitting across from her: Ash.

She notices that he hadn't gotten a chance to make himself presentable. His raven hair was more messy than usual, his face had a sleepy look to it, and, most noticeably, he was only in his boxers. He got up to put the bat back in his room and saw that his "little friend" was attempting to make an appearance.

Being only 10 years old, she didn't know much about those things but it had her feeling some way.

As Ash disappeared around the corner, she started slowly eating her pancakes. Gary was viciously eating his stack, as if he hadn't eaten in weeks. Red was quite the opposite, he had barely touched his pancakes; he was more focused on Leaf's expression while Ash was leaving. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't like it. Pikachu was fast asleep, the weight of is meal catching up to him.

Ash flew back down the stairs, ready to destroy the food just as Gary had a few minutes before. Leaf glanced up at Ash and saw that he was now fully clothed. This disappointed her slightly, but she didn't give it much thought.

They all quickly finished their meal and began cleaning the kitchen. Leaf was washing dishes, Red was drying them, and Ash was putting them away.

Gary didn't want to look like a freeloader and tried to think of something to do to help. He grabbed a rag and some spray-on cleaner. He sprayed the table a little bit and started scrubbing away.

He had a little too much fun spraying and some started to tickle Pikachu's nose. He woke out of his sleep and sneezed, causing a Thundershock to hit the closest target: Gary. Everyone turned around to see Pikachu rub his irritated little nose and Gary slightly twitching on the floor. This earned a laugh from everyone else, including Red.

Gary got up, sore and irritated. He looked at Pikachu who was still rubbing his nose. Gary sprayed the back of his head intentionally, earning him another healthy Thundershock from the electric mouse.

He didn't even get up this time, just lying on the floor while his friends laughed at his expense.

When they finally calmed down, Ash wiped a few tears from his eyes and then walked over to help Gary up. As soon as Gary was up, he glared at everyone in the room while searching for the mischievous Pokemon.

Pikachu had already left, being unamused by whatever the others were laughing at.

"I'm going to get dressed now," Gary said with a serious tone.

The others couldn't take him seriously after what just happened and let him leave.

"We should get ready too guys. Did you bring your clothes or do you have to go back home?"  
asked Ash.

"Nah we brought everything here," Leaf replied.

Leaf pointed to a giant pink duffle bag and a yellow backpack sitting in the corner. Red rolled his eyes at the size of the luggage his sister decided to bring.

"Why did you bring so much stuff Leaf?" asked Ash.

"Because, I need all of it," she replied.

Red saw the look on Ash's face and knew what his next question would be. He quickly tried to signal Ash to abort mission, but the signal never went through.

"…For what?"

As soon as those words left Ash's mouth, Red sprinted out of the kitchen.

"Welllllll…" Leaf started.

Ash immediately regretted asking that question. Leaf started going on and on about hair products, ranting about what was good, what was bad, what she had, what she wanted, and the sort. She started saying words that Ash couldn't believe were considered English. She was going a mile a minute and he couldn't keep up.

"Okay, okay, I get it, you need all of it. I feel like my brain is melting," Ash complained while rubbing his temple.

Red peeked through the door to see if it was safe. When he saw that Leaf was finally silent, he walked back in, grabbed his backpack, and dashed up the stairs.

"I wonder what that was about…" Leaf asked.

"His brain probably melted too."

This earned Ash a smack from Leaf. She turned around, grabbed her bag and went upstairs with everyone else. Ash rubbed his head for a few seconds before following her up.

When he got upstairs, Gary was already dressed and playing the Xbox in Ash's room. Pikachu was on the second controller, his eyes fixed on the screen as well. Red was showering in the bathroom, while Leaf was sitting on the bottom bunk watching the competition between Gary and Pikachu.

They were playing a quickscope/noscope match on Rust in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. They were clearly duking it out to see who was superior after their exchange downstairs. It was already down to the wire; the score was 14-14 with 20 seconds left on the clock. They were both furiously pressing buttons, not letting the other get a chance to take an easy shot. With 5 seconds left, Gary ran up the ramp, jump off the side, did a 360, and domed Pikachu.

Both of them stood as still as a statue, waiting as the final killcam showed up. It showed the exact same event, but Gary's character spun in slow motion until he pulled the trigger and Pikachu's character dropped like a log.

A smile slowly crept up on Gary's face as he realized he had won. He threw the controller into the air, which Red caught as he entered the room. Pikachu continued to sit on the floor, his tiny arms crossed in disappointment. Ash could clearly see Pikachu's discontent with the situation and decided he should step in.

"Gary, I wouldn't be so happy with your performance," Ash commented.

Gary stopped cheering and everyone looked at Ash confused.

"But… I won?" Gary said confused.

"It was 15-14 against a _Pokemon_ Gary," Ash stated.

Everyone looked at Pikachu, even Pikachu looked at his own hands.

They clearly weren't human hands, they were small, tiny Pikachu hands.

The controller was sat in his lap, the triggers and bumpers being pressed by his feet. Pikachu couldn't wrap his hands around the controller to use the thumbsticks properly, so he used the "palms" of his paws to move them as well as press buttons. With such limited movements, it was surprising that he could get even a single kill.

This information slowly registered with everyone. A proud smile crept on to Pikachu's face; even though he had lost the battle, there was always another day for a rematch.

He moved the controller from his lap, walked up to Gary and extended a paw.

Gary saw this and he reflected Pikachu's smile. He knelt down and shook his paw.

"GG lil Pika. Don't get your hopes up, it won't be so close next time," Gary said with a competitive air around him.

"Pika!" Pikachu responded, clearly excited for a rematch.

Everyone smiled at the exchange. Once they let go, Ash checked his phone. It was now 7:50, class started in 10 minutes. He tossed his phone in panic and quickly ripped the uniform off the hanger and put it on, despite everyone in the room. Everyone looked at him, confused as to what caused the outburst.

"IT IS 7:50 EVERYONE, LET'S GO!" he yelled.

Everyone followed suit and quickly put on their clothes. Gary scrambled downstairs with Pikachu on his shoulder to make sure he had all his supplies. When he got downstairs, he rummaged through his backpack furiously. At last, he pulled out a lone pen and sighed in relief.

"Glad I remembered to bring everything," Gary said.

The other three came down dressed similarly to Gary, aside from Leaf. The guys had on khaki pants with a white short sleeved button down and their sneakers, while Leaf had on a white short sleeved blouse, a blue plaid skirt, knee high socks, and flats.

Red and Ash had their signature hats on, while Leaf decided to do without hers and just tied her hair up.

They all rushed out the door, with Red in the lead. Ash followed close behind, holding Leaf's hand and dragging her along the path. During any other time, she would've blushed, but she was more focused on getting to the school more than anything else.

As they saw the school appear on the horizon, Gary pulled out his phone and checked the time: 7:58.

"We have 2 minutes!" Gary yelled from the back.

Red and Ash kicked it into overdrive, with Leaf and Gary being tugged along. Pikachu was hanging on to Ash's hat for dear life, flopping around with every step the raven-haired boy took. They could see a familiar figure standing by the door with their arms folded and head shaking.

"WAITTTT!" yelled Red.

Everyone was shocked hearing the boy talk, let alone yell. As they reached the top of the stairs, they all keeled over and caught their breath.

"Tsk tsk tsk. I was expecting this from Ash and Gary, but not you two," said a familiar voice.

The group looked up and saw none other than Professor Oak standing in front of them.

"Gramps?! You're running this school?" asked Gary.

"Yes my boy, now get inside, all of you, you're already late," he replied.

As Ash and Red walked passed, Oak snatched the hats off their heads, earning strange looks from the boys.

"Hey, what gives?" asked Ash.

"You should've read the handbook boy, no hats. Come by my lab later to get them," Oak said sharply.

The two boys turned around and started grumbling under their breath.

The entrance hall was a lot bigger than they anticipated. There were many sets of lockers with about 5 classrooms on each side and a staircase in the back.

The group made a turn into the fourth door on the left and saw no one else in the room. Moreover, the room only had 4 student desks.

"This feels like a setup…" said Ash nervously sitting in one of the desks.

"Now now, settle down kids," another voice said.

"You can't be serious…" Gary says quietly.

"Yes I am. Good morning students, I am your Professor for the next 6 years. My name is Professor Samuel Oak, and I am a Pokemon Professor," Prof. Oak says cheekily.

"Good morning Professor Oak…" the 'class' groaned.

"Today we have a transfer student, all the way from Kalos. Come in young lady, introduce yourself," Oak says.

A honey-blonde 10-year-old girl walks in the class nervously. Her skirt was much shorter than Leaf's but not short enough to be revealing. Her blouse also fit her body much better than Leaf's. She looks around the room, her sky blue eyes only focusing on the 4 kids staring at her.

"Hi-i, M-my name i-is S-sere-ena Ga-abena-a…" she says nervously.

The entire 'class' looks uninterested. Leaf stands up to break the awkwardness in the room.

"Hi! My name is Leaf Habarra. This is my twin brother, Red, and our friends, Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak," Leaf said cheerfully.

Red merely smiled while Gary and Ash waved from the back row. Pikachu tapped Ash from on top of his head and pointed to himself.

"Oh, and this is my buddy Pikachu," Ash said.

Pikachu hopped down and walked up to Serena. Oak watched Pikachu nervously, feeling like he was up to something.

 _"Pikachu doesn't like people, why is he demanding an introduction?"_ Oak thought to himself.

Pikachu then raised his arms in celebration. The sudden movement caused Oak to flinch, as he was expecting something to happen.

Pikachu just winked at him.

Serena reached down and picked up Pikachu. He wiggled himself free, climbed on to her shoulder, and rubbed his cheek on Serena's face, causing her to smile.

"Well isn't he a cutie," Serena said, scratching him behind the ears.

Seeing Serena ease up allowed Oak to breathe a sigh of relief.

 _"I guess he isn't all bad after all…"_ Oak thought.

 _"Oak is so fucked,"_ Pikachu thought to himself mischievously.

Once Serena ceased her barrage of pleasure to small rodent, he hopped down and scurried back to Ash. Oak looked back at the class and realized there was only 4 desks.

"Red, would you kindly go next door and grab an extra desk for Ms. Gabena?" Oak asked.

Red nodded politely and left the room. In the short period he was gone, Serena observed the dynamic between the group. Gary and Ash were obviously very close, going on and on about some game they were talking about, while Leaf seemed to be a little distant, staring down at her lap.

 _"I wonder what she's thinking about. She looks deep in thought."_ Serena thought.

Not too long after, she heard the soft sound of a phone vibrating and Leaf's hands shuffling to conceal it.

 _"Ahh. That's why she's looking down, she's on her phone."_ Serena observed.

Red then loudly came back into the room, bashing the desk into everything possible.

"Sorry," Red said quietly.

Oak just waved it off.

"Move your seat to where you like Serena, there's plenty of space for the 6 of us," Oak said.

She thought about it very carefully, she didn't want to sit where she would mess up the flow of the class, but didn't want to sit too far away to stay out of the loop.

She decided to sit beside Leaf, that way she could have girl talk when class died down a bit while still being able to hear the antics of Gary and Ash in the back. This left her isolated from Red, being on the other side of Leaf. He wasn't a man of many words anyway, so she didn't feel like she was missing out.

After that train wreck of an introduction, Professor Oak decided to begin the lesson. He started off with basic survival skills: what you needed if you found yourself camping at night, what to do if someone in your party gets sick or injured, and how to prepare food that was easy enough to make in an hour.

The amount of information Oak was pouring on to these kids was incredible. It goes without saying that not all of them got it on the first try. Ash had given up taking notes, seeing that he couldn't keep up if he did and decided on taking mental notes instead. Gary had all together just given up and was doodling in his copybook. Both Red and Leaf were steadily writing, catching every word the professor threw out.

And then there was Serena.

She wasn't getting it as quick as Red or Leaf, but getting in nonetheless. She glanced over at Ash, who had a look of intrigue on his face. She noticed his book was closed and his pen sitting on the desk.

 _"Is he really that good that he doesn't have to take notes? I have to get better, I can't sit around and sulk like I was at home; Yvonne is already training hard to be a sky trainer, I can't let her get ahead of me,"_ Serena thought to herself.

Yvonne, or Y for short, is Serena's twin sister. Their mother was trying to train them both to be Rhyhorn racers, but both of the girls decided that that wasn't for them.

Y loved the sky, and as a result, became a sky trainer. Serena, on the other hand, hadn't decided what she wanted to do yet.

This allowed her mother to force the Rhyhorn racer lifestyle on her. That was when she decided that she needed an escape. Fortunately, Professor Sycamore was handing out starter Pokemon in Lumiose City, allowing her to start as a trainer.

The news of the league's ruling on new trainers having to go to school was recently announced in Kalos, so there weren't any schools there as yet. This forced Serena out of her region. Kanto, being the region with the most schools, was the best choice.

Her mother reluctantly allowed her to go to Kanto to study. Serena wanted to study under the best of the best, so she enrolled under Professor Oak's school, even though the school was new.

"Ms. Gabena, can you guess what Oran Berries do when eaten?" Oak asked.

This statement broke Serena out of her thoughts, making her a little flustered.

"Uh, umm, uh… Cure paralysis?" Serena said nervously.

Oak gently shook his head.

"No no, those are Cheri Berries. Oran Berries restore a little bit of health," Oak said.

Serena instantly felt bad, she hadn't been paying any attention to the class and paid the price for it. She put her head to the desk in shame.

The next thing she knew, she felt someone poking the top of her head.

"Serena?.. Serena, wake up," a voice said.

She lifted her head from the desk, a little drool sitting on the desk. As her eyes regained focus, she saw a raven haired boy with a Pikachu on his head.

"Huh? What happened?" she asked.

"You fell asleep, that's what happened," Ash said.

Serena looked around and saw they were the only ones in the class. This furthered her depression even more. She put her head back down on the desk and started crying a bit. Ash noticed and didn't know how to react.

"Come on Serena, don't do that," Ash pleaded.

"No, you don't understand, my mom paid all this money for me to come to school in Kanto to do what? Sleep?" Serena said, her tears coming more intensely.

Just then, Ash did the unthinkable. He pulled her up from the desk and held her. She didn't know what it but she felt… safe… She let out more tears into his shoulder as he rubbed her back.

"Come on now, don't give up until the very end. It's only the first day of school, you don't know what the future holds for you yet," Ash said soothingly.

Serena reluctantly removed herself from the embrace and looked Ash in the eyes. Ash wiped the tears from Serena's cheeks, bringing a blush to them and a smile along with it.

"That's better, now come on, we're gonna be late for class," Ash said.

He grabbed her by the hand and dragged her into the classroom across the hall. Ash didn't see it, but Serena couldn't stop blushing.

 _"I guess I could get used to this,"_ Serena thought to herself cheerfully.

When they entered the class, they saw none other than Professor Oak standing in the front of the class.

"Welcome! Nice of you to join us, come in, take a seat," Oak said cheekily.

Looking around, all 3 student's faces looked back at him: Red, Leaf, and Gary. With a heavy sigh, Ash let go of Serena's hand and they took their seats next to Gary and Leaf respectively.

 _"This is going to be a long 6 years…"_ they all thought to themselves.

* * *

 **(A/N: Well that's a wrap for chapter 2. We see the kids on their first day of school and the surprises they received as a result. There will be a time skip in the next chapter, there isn't much of a need to cover every day in their 6 years. I'll probably pump chapters out as soon as I feel they're ready until a certain point in the story. As always, let me know how I'm doing, review, comment, PM, whatever. See you next week!)**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Surprise, Surprise!

The sun has just started peeking over Pallet Town, its citizens still sleeping. However, a young raven haired boy lies awake in his bed, his beloved Pikachu asleep on the pillow next to him.

It has been 4 years since he started school. Within the 4 years, nothing special really happened. The first 4 years were more of learning years, from what Oak implied. The last two years were more hands on and dangerous, something that Ash could get behind.

The school they attended now grew in size, housing about 350 students; however, his friends were the eldest. Because of the new school, they were the first generation that was going to graduate under their roof.

No one could skip ahead of them because Professor Oak didn't believe in mid-year transfers; once you've entered another school's system, you were unwanted by the gray-haired headmaster.

Oak still personally taught the group of 5, being their permanent professor for all 6 years.

Ash decided it was time to shake those thoughts and get up from his bed. He didn't bother waking Pikachu seeing as it was still pretty early.

He headed downstairs to see 3 people sitting on the couch watching cartoons on TV in the living room. A fourth had just stepped out the front door, the noise catching the attention of Ash. He decided to check who was outside before going into the living room.

He stepped outside to see a honey-blonde staring out of the porch on to the horizon, holding visibly warm cup of coffee.

"The sunrise is beautiful in Pallet Town," Serena said, not even looking back at Ash.

Ash didn't respond, he just followed her gaze towards the horizon, watching the sun cast an orange hue on the sky. Serena took a sip from her cup before speaking again.

"You know, these past 4 years have honestly been the best in my life," Serena revealed.

This surprised Ash.

Serena frequently spoke about how much she missed Kalos and her family so he automatically assumed that she wasn't having that good of a time in Kanto.

"It's just that… back in Kalos, me and Y didn't exactly get along. Although we have a similar fashion sense, that's where the similarities end. Y is assertive, I'm passive, Y is athletic, I'm not so athletic. The list goes on. And then there's my mom. She's a world famous Rhyhorn racer a-,"

"World famous?" Ash interrupted.

Serena nodded her head and placed her cup on the railing of the porch, still not looking at Ash.

"Because she's so good, everyone expects at least one of us to follow in her footsteps. And ever since Y went to sky trainer school, she's been extra hard on me. At first, I honestly only came to Kanto to get away from it all, but I'm really glad I did," Serena said.

"I was always under the impression that you didn't want to be here. I mean, all you talk about is back home in the Kalos region," Ash said.

Serena shook her head slowly.

"I do miss being back home, but only because I wasn't really familiar with anyone. But after these 3 years, I don't mind staying here anymore. Living with Professor Oak has been… enchanting, to say the least, but it's really you guys that made me feel at home," Serena said.

With that, she turned around to see Ash for the first time today.

Ash had a soft smile across his face, clearly enjoying the conversation. Serena put her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes for a second, before pulling him into a tight embrace.

"Thank you… for everything…" Serena whispered.

Ash silently returned the hug. As Serena pulled away, she planted a quick kiss on Ash's cheek, before smiling, picking her cup up, and walking back inside. Ash stood there frozen.

 _"What… Did she just… Why…"_

All these questions were running through Ash's mind, not too sure what anything meant anymore. He just shrugged it off the best he could and went inside.

Serena had already joined everyone else on the couches and was sipping her coffee. Ash came and sat on the couch with Red without saying a word.

There were empty plates sitting on the coffee table in the middle, meaning that they had already made breakfast.

They had made it a tradition to, not sleepover, but break into Ash's house and spend the night on the first day of school. Ash didn't mind as long as they didn't break anything.

Gary and Leaf were both asleep on opposite couches. Serena and Red were just watching the TV with blank expressions.

Serena was obviously in deep thought, not even reacting to when something funny happened. Red, on the other hand, was just an unreadable guy. He'd lightly huff and smile whenever something funny happened, but his face would go right back to blank.

The silence was broken when Gary rolled off the couch and hit the floor with a loud thump. Everyone's head shot to Gary's direction to see the spiky haired teen laying on the floor.

"Good morning guys," Gary yawned.

"Morning Gary. Well it's just about 6:30, so I guess it's time to get up," Ash said.

Serena nodded her head before picking up all the plates and taking it to the kitchen. Red got up and gently shook Leaf, waking her up. Without a word, she went upstairs and into the bathroom. Ash was the last to get up to help Gary get up.

Gary followed Ash out of the living room and into the kitchen to help Serena with the dishes. Red already manned his station and was silently drying the dishes Serena just washed. Ash immediately went to start putting dishes away, effectively leaving Gary to clean the table again.

He grabbed his trusty spray and rag (the exact same ones) and walked back into the living room.

As soon as he stepped in, he saw Pikachu sitting on the table. Remembering what happened 3 years ago, Gary completely ignored the fact that Pikachu just spawned there, picked the small creature up, and silently brought him into the kitchen.

No less than 10 seconds later, Gary heard Ash yell a curse word and a dish drop. He ran into the kitchen to see Ash with this hands on his knees, hyperventilating.

"God damn Pikachu, don't scare me like that, you nearly gave me a heart attack," Ash said.

Gary quietly slid out of the room, knowing that he inadvertently caused that whole mess. He picked up his spray and rag, and got to cleaning.

Once the kitchen and living room were spotless, they all went upstairs to Ash's room to take turns showering.

Pikachu was sitting on Ash's bunk when Gary put a controller in his face.

"Come on lil Pika, we never got that rematch," Gary said competitively.

Pikachu put on a smile before grabbing the controller with both arms. He sat in his usual spot and assumed his position.

Serena, never seeing this before, looked very confused. Leaf walked passed with a towel on her head to dry her hair and glanced at the screen.

"Don't let it hurt your brain too much Serena, you'll probably need it today," Leaf joked.

"But… how can Gary play against… a Pokemon?.." Serena said confused.

"Don't underestimate Pikachu, he's got a lot of skills you don't know about," Ash said.

This statement intrigued Leaf, but she decided not to pursue her thoughts.

With that, Red entered the room and Ash left to take a shower. Ash decided to take a long shower.

He stood in the middle of the tub, warm water splashing his face while he contemplated life. He really didn't know how long he was in there until he heard a knock on the door.

"Ash? You okay in there?" He heard Serena say.

"Yeah, I'm almost done," he replied.

"Okay, well hurry up, I still need to shower and Leaf and I need to do our hair."

Ash didn't respond. He just got out, dried off, wrapped the towel around his waist, and left the bathroom.

Serena was standing on the other side of the door with a little bag full of what Ash guessed was clothes and hair products.

Serena looked at Ash's body and blushed a little, having to advert her gaze so he didn't notice the blush on her face. She couldn't get a good look to know if he was rather toned or not, which slightly disappointed her.

They both walked past without taking a second look at each other.

When Ash entered the room, Red and Leaf were already dressed, but Leaf's hair was still a mess. Both Red and Ash decided to keep their hair messy in protest to Prof. Oak's 'no hat' policy. Gary was also dressed, but he was still on the floor with Pikachu.

"Who's winning?" Ash asked while going into his drawer for a shirt.

"It's game 3, we're tied 1-1," Gary replied.

 _"How long was I in the shower?"_ Ash thought.

"Pikachu is leading, 10-6," Leaf said, breaking Ash out of his thoughts.

Ash just nodded in response, grabbed his clothes, and went downstairs to change.

As soon as he got to the living room, he quickly removed the towel on his waist and put on his khaki pants for school, not wanting to be caught without them on. He sat on the couch, his shirt hanging on his shoulders, not bothering to do the buttons yet.

 _"I can feel this year is about to get really weird, I'm not sure why though…"_ Ash thought to himself.

 _"Professor Oak says it gets really intense these last two years. I'm not even sure what the schedule is going to look like. What will we even be learning? I mean we already lea-,"_

"Hey Ash, can we talk?" His thoughts were cut off by a female voice.

He looked up and saw Leaf standing in the doorway.

"Yeah, sure Leaf, what's up?" Ash responded.

Ash could tell she looked a little hesitant, but he wasn't sure what for. She came and sat next to the shirtless boy on the couch.

"I need some advice," Leaf said hesitantly. "I can't go to Red because all he does is shake his head and shrug, Serena because I feel weird asking her about it, and Gary because…"

"It's Gary," Ash said chuckling.

"Yeah… So you're the only one I really have left."

"Okay so what's the problem?" Ash said.

"Okay well you see… Well the problem is… It's kinda…" Leaf bit her lip, clearly flustered by the thoughts in her head.

"Yeah…" Ash prodded.

"Oh fuck it."

With that, Leaf grabbed Ash by the face and pressed her lips against hers.

Ash was caught off guard, unsure of what to do. As soon as Leaf pulled away, she saw the confusion in Ash's eyes and instantly went into panic mode.

Without a word, she hopped off the couch and sprinted up the stairs.

"Well that was weird…" Ash whispered to himself.

This was the second time within an hour that someone kissed him.

 _"What has gotten into those two today? First, Serena kisses me on the cheek, then Leaf full on makes out with me. What is going on?"_

Ash ran a hand through his unkempt hair, assessing the events that just unfolded.

 _"Serena's kiss was much different from Leaf's. Serena's honestly felt like she was thanking me, which she was right before that. But Leaf... What was up with that?"_

Clearly, Ash wasn't familiar with relationships.

All throughout the past 3 years in trainer's school, Leaf tried to make it obvious that she was interested. However, apparently no one in their friend group realized that, but every other student in the school did.

She was constantly under him, throwing her opinion into everything, giving him support and advice, and pulling him out of sticky situations. Unfortunately for her, he just thought she was being friendly.

She had even tried going on dates with him, but 9 times out of 10, he would bring Gary along too. The other 1 out of 10, he couldn't make it.

This frustrated her, forcing her to contemplate giving up plenty of times. But her friendship with the young lad made it hard for her to move on.

 _"Maybe she has feelings for me…"_ Ash contemplated. _"Nah, that'd be silly, she's like a little sister to me"_

That still didn't explain why she had did that. The wheel in his head started rolling. Maybe she did…

Ash's thoughts were shattered abruptly when he heard a loud thud from the room above him.

"That was so BULLSHIT!" he heard from above.

Ash had a feeling that Gary had just lost to Pikachu and he threw his controller on the floor.

With a sigh, Ash quickly put his shirt on and went upstairs.

 _"Hopefully no one else kisses me today."_

When he reached the top, Serena peeked her head out of the bathroom and looked at Ash. She already had her uniform on and was in the middle of fixing her hair when she was disrupted by the ruckus.

She promptly shrugged her shoulders at Ash before returning to the bathroom.

Ash opened the door and saw Pikachu with a content smile on his face and a controller on his lap, Gary gazing out the window probably contemplating his life, and Red and Leaf sitting on the top bunk with the most confused expressions on their face.

He also saw the broken controller on the floor, buttons and pieces of black plastic scattered across the floor.

Gary turned back around to assess the damage as he heard the door open. He felt guilty about breaking Ash's controller, but he kept an upset façade to show off a little.

"You can have my spare Ash, I don't use it anyway, I always come to your house to play," Gary said.

Ash didn't respond, he was just picking up pieces off the floor. Once he was done, he tossed them into the trashcan by the door before addressing Gary.

"I appreciate it. Now what exactly happened that caused you to slam my controller into the floor?" Ash asked.

Gary just scoffed. "It doesn't matter anymore, just know that it was bullshit," he said in response.

Ash was about to respond when Serena popped her head into the door, her hair neatly pulled into a ponytail.

 _"All that time for a ponytail…"_ Ash thought.

"Okay guys, I think we should go now, it's 7:45," Serena said.

No one said anything, they just got up and collected their things.

Ash and Pikachu were second to the door, Serena already leaning on the frame. She was deep in thought, not even noticing the pair approach her.

"Nervous about this year too huh?" Ash said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Serena nodded. "I'm not even sure what we'll be learning, I could've sworn we covered it all."

Their conversation was cut short by Gary walking between them.

"Come on guys, no time for conversing or we'll be late again," he said sternly.

Everyone else nodded in approval.

The walk to the school was deadly silent, but no one seemed to notice; they were all caught up in the same thought: what would they cover for an entire year now?

Before they even knew it, they were at the steps of the school. Most of the other students had already gone inside, but some were still lingering outside as they had a few minutes left.

As usual, Professor Oak was standing by the door, waiting ever patiently.

"Just the group I wanted to see! Go around the back of the school, I have a surprise for you all," Oak said with a warm smile.

This further confused the students. This surprise obviously had something to do with their curriculum for the year as none of the other students followed them.

Once they got around to the back, they were standing on as battlefield. On the other end was Professor Oak's assistant, Tracey Sketchit.

He stood in is characteristic red headband, green shirt, and red pants. What caught the students' attention, however, was the magnetic belt with a single Pokeball attached to it.

He never wore one.

"Hello students, today is your first day of _real_ training," he said with a smirk.

He immediately reached for the ball and released its contents.

Without a command, a Machoke rushed at them and tried to hit the group with a Karate Chop.

"Pikachu use Flash!" Ash yelled.

Ash covered his eyes while Pikachu jumped from his shoulder and emitted a bright light.

As soon as the light faded, Ash uncovered his eyes just in time to see Tracey's fist smash into his cheek. Ash fell on to back, dazed and unaware of what was going on.

The rest of the group was too stunned to react. Why had Tracey attacked Ash?

Once Ash regained focus, he saw Tracey standing over him, about to stomp on his chest.

"Bulbasaur use Vine Whip!" Leaf yelled as she threw his ball forward.

As soon as Bulbasaur was free, he restrained Tracey.

"Low kick!" Tracey yelled.

Pikachu jumped out of the way before he realized that he wasn't the intended target. Machoke just sped past Pikachu before bending down to swing its bulky foot at Bulbasaur.

"Pikachu protect Bulbasaur with Thundershock!"

But it was too late, his foot had already made contact with Bulbasaur's head, dealing massive damage and releasing Tracey in the process.

The Thundershock still struck Machoke, giving Bulbasaur a chance to recover.

"Use Vine Whip on Machoke!" Leaf yelled.

Bulbasaur unleashed its vines, whipping Machoke as much as his injuries allowed. Tracey saw what was happening to Machoke.

But before he could call an attack, Tracey felt Ash's fist make contact with his temple.

"Pikachu use Thunder Wave," Ash said calmly, standing over Tracey.

Pikachu released a pulse of electricity that paralyzed Machoke in the process.

"Bulbasaur, restrain him," Leaf said, emulating the calm in Ash's voice.

Bulbasaur once again unleashed its vines, wrapping them around the muscular Pokemon.

"What the actual fuck was that?!" Ash yelled.

"I see you've passed your first test," the group heard.

They all turned to see Professor Oak smiling.

" _Test!_ That was a _test_?!" Gary yelled at his grandfather.

"Now calm down boy. You know that in the wilderness there are no rules to combat. What Tracey did was extremely dirty and none of you expected it. Now what if someone with intent to kill had done that? Hmm?" Oak said.

He was right, if Tracey was a random assailant, there was no telling what would have happened to Ash.

Ash spit on the dirt to reveal a decent amount of blood mixed with his saliva.

 _"I knew this year was going to be weird,"_ Ash thought to himself.

Tracey weakly raised an arm and returned Machoke to its ball. Red then approached the downed man and help him up.

"Red, would you kindly take Tracey to the infirmary? Thank you," Oak said.

Red nodded and helped the young adult walk into the building.

"So I guess you're gonna teach us how to fight?" Leaf said inquisitively.

"Me? God no. I'm way too old to take a punch like that. I've brought someone that's more trained in hand-to-hand combat. Korrina?" Oak said.

Just then, a blonde-haired girl walked out the back door, revealing herself to the group. She had her hair in a high ponytail that extended a great length down her back. She wore a white and red sleeveless dress and black tights under the skirt.

A tall, dog-like Pokemon soon followed her out. It stood on two muscular legs, metal spikes protruding from the back of both hands and the middle of its yellow chest. It's wide red eyes, carefully scanning every person that wasn't Korrina.

Red eyes met deep blue ones.

 _"Why does this Lucario look so familiar?"_ Serena thought.

She had a strange sense of déjà vu.

Korrina saw Lucario's eyes locked with Serena's, none of them breaking their gaze. She was confused as to why they had been staring at each other so long.

Korrina wasn't the only one to notice the exchange, everyone else did too, but no one said a word.

Everyone saw Lucario's eyes widen and then sprint at Serena, tackling her to the ground.

"Hey! What are you doing! Cut it out!" Serena said while laughing.

Her laughter increased the confusion levels amongst the rest.

"Okay! Stop! I missed you too!" Serena said, continuing her giggles.

 _"Missed you too? What is she going on about?"_ Korrina thought.

"What's… going on here?.." Ash said slowly.

"Okay! Okay! Get off me now!" Serena said, the last of her laugh dying down.

She then picked herself up off the floor as Lucario stood next to her.

"I guess you're taking good care of Lucario," Serena said with a big smile.

"Yeah? Why do you care?" Korrina said with a little aggression in her voice. Everyone flinched a little, feeling her words hitting them.

Serena, however, kept smiling, not detecting the threatening tone.

"You see, I met this Lucario many years ago when it was still a Riolu," Serena said.

Korrina scoffed, "Yeah, bullshit you did. We came fro-."

"Shalour City, in the Kalos region. I was born and raised in Kalos, actually. When I was a little girl, my mom took my sister Y and I to Shalour City for a Rhyhorn race," Serena said, interrupting the other Kalos native.

She closed her eyes remembering the event.

"At some point in time, I got lost and happened to run into this Riolu. It jumped out of the bush and scared me, causing me to fall over and hurt myself. I started crying and Riolu was about to run off, but I guess it felt bad because it came back and helped me find my way out of the forest," Serena recalled.

Lucario nodded his head and smiled. Korrina felt her aggression lessen, finally hearing the honey blonde's story.

"After that, he kept visiting me and Y at a nearby playground. We had so much fun that week, I really wanted to keep Riolu, but I was still very young and my mom thought I wouldn't take good care of him," Serena said, her tone dropping as the sentence progressed.

Lucario placed a paw on her shoulder to comfort her. Serena placed her own hand on top of Lucario's to show her appreciation.

"I'm glad to know that he went to someone wonderful; he looks so strong and healthy," Serena complemented.

Lucario looked at his arms and flexed a bit seeing if he actually did gain some muscle. He realized he did and smiled, feeling his self-confidence soar. Korrina smiled; she was happy that Lucario was feeling good.

"Okay, okay, enough of this feely shit, I wanna learn how to kick some ass!" Gary said rudely.

This earned him a nasty glare from Korrina and Serena.

Then Korrina smiled, coming up with an idea.

"You wanna learn huh? Come then, fight me!" Korrina said, getting into a fighting position.

"Okay, fine. I'll go easy on you, I don't want to hu-." Gary's sentence was cut off as Korrina sent a right hook into Gary's jaw.

"Cheap shot," Gary grumbled. "Okay, try and hit me now that I'm ready!"

Korrina sent another right hook, which he easily blocked.

"Ha! Not so ea-." He was cut off again when Korrina sent him a left-handed uppercut.

"Okay… You win…" Gary whimpered.

Oak just shook his head in shame.

Red just got back and saw Gary laying on the floor.

"Oh good, you're back Red! Please take Gary to the infirmary too," Oak said cheerfully.

Red grumbled a little bit, complaining that he had to carry all the patients.

He took a look at Gary and immediately stopped complaining; Gary had a nasty bruise on his left cheek and right side of his jaw. He slung Gary's limp body over his shoulder, happy he wasn't getting his face beat in.

"Anyone else?" Korrina asked cockily.

Everyone furiously shook their head.

"This year, we will be focusing on Pokemon battling and hand-to-hand combat," Oak said loudly, hoping to dispel the fear Korrina instilled. "You will be assigned sparring partners, they will stick with you until the end of this year. That person will fight and battle you."

 _"I hope I get Ash,"_ Leaf thought to herself.

"The selection process will be completely random," Oak continued. "I've wirelessly programmed your Pokédex's to display a certain color. Whoever's color you match is your partner.

Everyone pulled their dex out and flipped it open. Ash then realized his bulb was shattered.

"Professor, my bulb is broken," Ash said.

He held up his dex so that Oak could see the damage.

"What did you do? Those bulbs are extremely hard to break," Oak said.

Ash thought about what he did last with his Pokédex.

 _Flashback_

 _Ash, Pikachu, and Gary were outside in Ash's backyard. They were sitting in the shade under a large tree._

 _All 3 were visibly bored, everyone else had plans that day, leaving the 3 to do nothing._

 _"I feel like breaking somethin'," Gary said mischievously._

 _Pikachu nodded his head in agreement. Ash came up with an idea._

 _"Hey I have an idea, why don't we teach Pikachu a new move?" Ash asked._

 _"I like it," Gary said. "But how are we gonna do that?"_

 _Ash thought about it. He needed targets, something that could easily be reusable and attracted electricity._

 _"What about our Pokédex's? Your grandpa said they're pretty much indestructible," Ash suggested._

 _"I'll only do it if you can prove that they are," Gary said._

 _Ash nodded and removed his Pokédex from his pocket. He placed it underneath the tree and all 3 took a couple of steps back._

 _"Okay Pikachu, hit it with a Thunderbolt!" the boy yelled._

 _With all his little might, Pikachu discharged as much electricity as possible into the red machine until they heard a POP sound come from the device, causing Pikachu to end the move._

 _Ash ran over to it with Pikachu on his heels. Ash picked it up and saw the broken bulb. Gary stood next to Ash, knowing what had happened._

 _"Well that was definitely entertaining," Gary said mockingly._

 _Flashback End_

"I, uh… dropped it… a lot..." Ash said with hesitation.

He just hoped Oak would buy it.

Oak shook his head, buying the story but clearly disappointed in the boy's neglect for the piece of technology.

Ash breathed a sigh of relief.

"Just wait, whoever doesn't get paired will be your partner," Oak said.

The only other two people, Leaf and Serena, compared colors. Leaf was green, Serena was pink.

"Well, I guess our partners are Red and a dead guy," Leaf said with a chuckle.

"Maybe one of us got Ash," Serena suggested with a shrug.

 _"I had completely forgotten about that,"_ Leaf thought.

"But wait, there's 5 of us Professor, who is the last person paired with?" Ash asked.

"A good question, my boy. They will be paired with Tracey," Oak replied.

"Great, _two_ dead people," Leaf said.

Serena couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Don't forget their favorite nurse," Serena added.

"Two dead people and a mute. The list is getting worse," Leaf continued.

"Don't say that about your brother," Serena replied with a stifled laugh.

Leaf was about to respond with something snarky, but Red came out confused as to why his dex started glowing pink.

"Looks like you're my partner Red," Serena said.

Red didn't know what she meant by that but just went along with it and smiled.

 _"Okay, that just leaves Gary,"_ Leaf thought.

"Hey Red, what color was Gary's dex glowing?" Leaf inquired.

Red held a finger up, signaling her to wait as he went inside to check.

"Blue," he said as he walked back out.

"Well that means I can either be paired with Leaf or Gary," Ash said aloud.

"Let me see your dex, Ash," Oak said.

Ash handed the dex to Oak who began tilting it, trying to get a look at the glowing filament under the broken glass.

Oak pondered for a minute before walking up to the building and smashing the glass against the building.

Everyone looked at Oak slightly perplexed.

"Ah! Your color is green Ash," Oak said.

 _"YES"_ Leaf thought.

Oak leaned over to Korrina.

"I really couldn't tell the color after breaking it, I just heard her say it her's was green and went with it," Oak whispered into Korrina's ear.

This caused Korrina to smile awkwardly.

"Okay, so I guess you're my partner for the year," Ash said.

"Or for life…" Leaf mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" Ash asked.

"Nothing!"

Ash narrowed his eyes at the brunette but just shrugged it off after a few seconds.

 _"I guess I gotta keep an eye on her then,"_ Ash thought.

And with that, their school year began.

Korrina slowly began teaching the 5, not including Tracey, the basics of fighting, while Oak helped train their Pokemon in the art of battling. Each of them got the basics down fairly quickly, not taking more than a few days to fully grasp each concept.

This lead to each of them having loads of free time and adopting their own fighting style based on their thought process.

Ash took on a punch-as-much-as-possible type style, similar to an MMA fighter.

Gary adopted a taunting style that capitalized on openings the opponent created.

Red had a slow and organized style, letting the opponent wear themselves down before coming in with brute strength.

Both Leaf and Serena worked together to learn how to move as quick as possible while aiming for key points on an opponent.

In their free time, they also battled frequently, leading to each of their starters reaching their second evolution, aside from Pikachu. They all learned a multitude of new moves that helped in battling. **(A/N: In this universe, Pokemon can learn more than 4 moves and are born knowing certain egg moves.)**

Red and Leaf were known to be the best fighters, but Ash replaced Leaf when it came to the battling.

Ash and Leaf also got closer as the year progressed. The two always had more 1-on-1 training sessions than anyone else, which greatly improved their skills. Leaf almost always won the fights and Ash won most battles, but it was always a close call.

The two even shared a few kisses. They enjoyed each other's company, even considered themselves as dating. However, they never spoke to each other about it and made it official, they just thought about it separately in their heads.

The only other person that knew of any events between the two was Gary. Ash informed Gary about what happened between him and Leaf on the first day and he pushed Ash to go for it, neither of them knowing if Leaf even returned any feelings. Even though they shared intimate moments, Ash wasn't confident she did.

They both just enjoyed the moments they shared, regardless of their romantic status.

Nevertheless, they, along with everyone else, were looking forward to the end of the year. Oak promised that the next year was going to be much more fun, which everyone got excited for.

The last day of the school year was already fast approaching. Oak announced that their final exam was going to be in 3 parts over the course of 3 days: a 1-on-1 fighting match against everyone in the class, a 1-on-1 battle between everyone in the class, and a simultaneous fight-battle against Korrina and Lucario.

Oak had stated that in order to move on to the next year, they would have to pass his evaluation.

"Even if you lose, you may still move on to the next year," Oak reassured. "However, winning also doesn't guarantee you a spot either."

This sent fear into the group, none of them wanted to be left behind.

With those being Oak's final words, the group left the school, aside from Red and Serena. The two trained there, having no real quiet spot to train.

Ash and Leaf went to their personal training spot, Ash's back yard. Gary and Tracey trained at Oak's ranch, often gathering a group of Pokémon that liked to watch and cheer.

The 3 groups trained for hours that day. They all feared failure, not wanting to be separated from their friends. This fueled them to train as hard as possible, each becoming more and more fit.

They all finally ended their separate session as the sun began to set, not moving from their spots.

Ash, Leaf, and their starters were sat underneath the big tree in the backyard, soaking in the shade. Both humans had a bottle of water, slowly sipping to make it last, while sharing some with their Pokemon.

Ash had already removed his shirt, feeling that it was causing him to overheat and move sluggishly. Leaf didn't mind as he had done this multiple times over the year.

"So you think we're ready for this test?" Ash asked.

"No doubt, I'm sure we could both beat Korrina if we wanted to," Leaf said confidently.

"I wouldn't get too confident, remember, she's been doing this for years," Ash replied.

"No kidding," Leaf said with a laugh.

Ash shifted positions and rested his head on Leaf's lap to lay down.

"Eww get your sweaty hair off me!" Leaf yelled with a laugh.

She kept trying to push Ash's head off her, but he just wrapped his arms around her stomach, pulling his face into her shirt to prevent it from coming off.

Leaf just gave up and softly chuckled. She started playing with his hair and went into deep thought.

 _"I'm really glad I got paired with Ash. I don't think I would be doing so good if I had been paired with anyone else,"_ Leaf thought.

She was shaken out of her thoughts when she heard a light snore come from the young teen on her lap.

 _"He really is something isn't he…"_ she thought with a smile.

Her smile faded as her mind wandered to their final test.

 _"I really can't lose, not after getting this far. If I fail here, I might as well give up,"_ she thought harshly.

She leaned her head against the tree to clear her thoughts, while the exhaustion finally took over and put her to sleep.

Red and Serena were similarly situated, both sipping water with their Pokemon, resting against the wall of the school to hide from the sun.

"You know Red, even though you don't talk much, I'm glad I was paired with you," Serena stated.

Red looked back at her with a soft smile. Serena guessed it meant he felt the same.

She gently rested her head against the boy's shoulder, causing him to blush. He just waved it off and leaned his head on hers.

Soon after, the pair fell asleep.

Both Tracey and Gary were leaning against Oak's lab, deciding to soak in the afternoon sun instead of hiding from it.

"You've greatly improved Gary, I'm impressed," complemented the older boy.

"Yeah, I don't want to get left behind. Gramps already told me that I was the lowest in the class, but that doesn't really say much 'cause there's only 5 of us," Gary replied.

Tracey just nodded, taking a sip from his water bottle.

However, Gary was beating himself up inside. He didn't feel he deserved to be last in either category, battling or combat.

This lead him to stay up countless nights, training by himself against some of Oak's fighting types and having Wartortle battle the others.

"I guess we should go inside, no sense staying out here any longer than we need to be," Gary said after a moment of silence.

Tracey nodded once more and followed the younger lad into the lab.

 _"There's no way I'm going down that easy. I'm the underdog right now, it's my time to shine,"_ Gary thought as he laid down in a random couch.

With that, Gary closed his eyes and fell asleep.

 **(A/N: This chapter was much longer than I intended it to be. I didn't want to split it into to because I felt it would flow weird, so I just merged it into one.**

 **But here, we see the growing relationship between Ash and the two females. We also get a little insight into the groups' confidence level; it'll play a big part in the finals.**

 **I feel like the story is finally starting to pick up, it's getting close to the part I really wanna write (the original idea I had that pushed me to write the fic).**

 **Thanks for stopping by once again! Don't forget to review! I need the feedback.)**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Day X

It was a fairly cool morning in Pallet Town. 5 teens and a single Pikachu were up bright and early, just as the sun began to rise. They were sitting in Ash's backyard under a lone tree.

It was Day 1 of their final. Needless to say, they were all pretty nervous.

To Ash, the silence was overbearing.

"What do you guys say? Wanna get one last practice in?" he said, trying to pull everyone out of their thoughts.

No one responded.

He jumped up, looking at the others. Everyone had a nervous look on their face.

"Come on guys, we can't just sit here sulking, let's get our mind off it," he said.

That was when he spotted a cocky smirk appear on Gary's face.

"While I do agree we should train, we shouldn't waste our energy," Gary said.

This caused Ash's face to take a sad expression.

"But," Gary said, causing Ash's head to snap up. "We still have a whole day to let our Pokémon rest. What do you say to a Pokémon battle Ashy boy?"

"I'm down, let's go Pikachu," Ash said with a smile.

Pikachu slowly walked over to Ash, rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out of them. He took a relaxed stance on Ash's side of the field, clearly not taking it seriously.

Gary silently laughed, realizing Pikachu's laziness and backed up some distance so the little Pokémon didn't have to walk.

"Ready Ashy boy?" Gary said with a smile.

"Whenever you are," Ash responded.

Gary tossed a ball forward, releasing Wartortle, who immediately took a battle stance.

"Care to ref Red?" Ash asked.

Red nodded and stood up. He got between the two trainers and raised his arms. He then dropped them, signaling the start of the battle.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded.

Pikachu yawned before assuming a battle stance. Before he could launch the attack, Ash heard Gary call one.

"Water gun!" Gary yelled.

Wartortle launched it as soon as it hit his ears, blasting Pikachu directly in the face.

This pushed him back a little bit. Gary saw this woke him up, smiling seeing the results.

 _"Oh he's getting it now!"_ Pikachu thought.

He jumped into the air and did a front flip before launching a bolt of lightning that hit Wartortle directly. Wartortle grunted in pain from the super effective attack.

Wartortle still got up, despite the super effective attack.

"Alright Wartortle, we gotta switch up. Use Withdraw!" Gary yelled.

Wartortle sunk into its shell, raising its defense.

"Pikachu, use Thunder Wave while he's vulnerable!" Ash called out.

Pikachu charged up and released an electric pulse. As it hit Wartortle, the paralysis kicked in, causing Wartortle to come out of its shell.

"Now we've got 'em, use Slam!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu jumped up into the air and started descending onto the turtle with speed.

 _"If that attack lands, there's no way Wartortle is surviving. I guess I gotta pull my trump card and go for broke,"_ Gary thought.

He waited until Pikachu was close before calling his attack.

"Wartortle! Surf!" Gary cried.

Wartortle then spawned a giant wave, knocking Pikachu back to Ash.

 _"He knows Surf?!"_ Ash and Pikachu thought simultaneously.

 _"He really doesn't want to lose,"_ Ash thought with a smile.

Pikachu got back up and shook off the excess water.

"Alright, if you wanna use TM moves, I can use TM moves," Ash said. "Pikachu use Flash!"

Pikachu jumped up into the air before emitting a bright flash of light.

"Thunder Punch, now!" Ash yelled before the light even faded.

Wartortle uncovered his eyes to see Pikachu with its fist covered with electricity, smashing it into his chest. This caused Wartortle to fly back to Gary's feet, kicking up dust as he skidded.

As the dust faded, Gary saw Wartortle unconscious.

With a smile, Gary returned Wartortle. Pikachu ran back to Ash and jumped onto his shoulder.

"I should've known you'd be making Pikachu stronger," Gary said.

"I should've too, that Surf really caught us off guard," Ash replied. "You really gave us a run for our money there."

The other 3 watched the friendly exchange.

None of them said a word during the entire battle, thinking of strategies to counter the two.

"Anyone else care to battle?" Ash said.

The three were then broken out of their thoughts, looking back at Ash and Gary with blank expressions.

Red just shrugged, got up, and walked to one side of the field.

Leaf contemplated battling her twin, but decided against it. Serena got up, but didn't move to the other side.

Red looked at her with a competitive smile which she returned.

"I'll battle Red," she said confidently.

She released Braixen before walking to the other side.

"Okay Braixen, we're battling Red again. We're not gonna pull our secret moves out alright?" Serena said.

Braixen nodded her head and put on a smile.

"Alright let's go," Serena said.

The pair walked over to the other side. While they were talking, Red had already released his Charmeleon.

Ash stood in between the two, taking the position as referee. He raised his arms to point to both trainers.

"This will be a 1-on-1 battle, Red vs Serena. Trainers, are you ready?" Ash yelled.

Both Red and Serena nodded.

"Battle begi-," Ash yelled. He was about to drop his arms to signaling the start of the battle, but a voice caught his attention.

"Hey guys, I don't mean to cut you short but it's just about 6 now, we should start getting ready," the voice said.

Everyone turned to see Leaf already set to leave.

"Well, I guess we'll have to battle another time," Serena said with a smile.

Red looked back and returned the smile. He then returned Charmeleon while Serena decided to let Braixen do what she wanted to do.

Braixed decided to stay outside and lay underneath the tree.

The rest of the group all piled inside, Leaf and Serena discussing what they would make for breakfast.

"Trying to kill some time lil Pika?" Gary asked while smiling.

Pikachu knew the smile Gary had and jumped on to his shoulder before they ran up the stairs.

"I hope Gary doesn't break anything else this time…" Ash mumbled to himself.

Red decided he had nothing better to do and sat on the couch to watch TV. Ash felt he was too lazy to walk to the living room with Red, but on the inside he just wanted to be around Leaf.

He sat on top of the table, letting his legs dangle while watching the pair of females discuss cooking techniques like they've done plenty of times in the past.

Leaf noticed the raven-haired lad and decided to reward him for staying.

Just then, she heard Serena open the fridge and start rummaging through it, looking for God knows what. Leaf turned around to face the boy and wrapped her arms around Ash's neck, pulling him close.

Ash put his hands on her waist, making it easier for the girl to press her body against his.

They quickly brushed their lips together before letting them fully interact.

"Hey Ash? Where do you keep the eggs?" Serena said, her head still buried in the fridge.

Just then, Leaf decided to make life hard for Ash.

She grabbed his member through his pants, causing the boy to stiffen up fairly quickly.

"It's uh… in… the uhh…" He tried to respond but Leaf was making it very difficult.

She'd never done this before, leaving Ash to decide what to do with this new sensation.

"Never mind, I found it," Serena said while closing the fridge.

The sound caused Leaf to stop dead in her tracks and step away from Ash.

"You okay though? You see-," Serena turned around, not expecting to see what she saw.

The pants that Ash was wearing wasn't very restricting.

Needless to say, Serena was pretty surprised to see that Ash had "pitched a tent." Her cheeks turned fire red, before turning away quickly.

 _"I didn't know he was so… LARGE,"_ she thought to herself.

Ash's face also turned red hot when he saw what Serena had stared at briefly. He quickly fixed himself as soon as the honey-blonde turned away.

Leaf witnessed the entire exchange, not particularly enjoying how Serena reacted.

Because Serena had her back to the couple again, Leaf decided to calm herself down by messing around with Ash again. She wrapped one hand around his neck and put the other on his thigh.

This time, Ash wasn't having it.

"What are you _doing_?!" Ash hissed in a hushed tone.

"I'm just having a little fun," Leaf whispered seductively, rubbing her hand closer to his private zone.

"Leaf, we are _14_! We're way too young to be doing these things!" Ash whispered, more aggressively this time. "Besides! Serena is _right there_!"

She ignored him briefly, grabbing his shaft before speaking again.

"Well it's not like you or her are stopping me," she replied while licking her lips.

She had a point, Serena was too embarrassed to meet the boy's eyes so she didn't want to turn around at all, while Ash was just silently scolding her.

When Ash didn't respond, Leaf started slowly pumping up and down, causing light growls to come from the boy.

"Leaf… Stop…" was all he could manage to whisper.

She leaned forward, making sure to put her mouth to his ear.

 _"Make me,"_ she hissed.

This sent Ash over the edge.

Overwhelmed by this new sense of pleasure, he viciously grabbed Leaf's behind, squeezing her cheeks roughly.

She let out a light moan which Ash took as a 'good job' signal.

"BREAKFAST IS READY!" was the statement that broke them out of their sex-crazed frenzy.

Their eyes met, a look of fear in there eyes.

"Do you think she heard us?" Leaf said.

The table was a good 10 feet from the stove. Although it was just stopped, the sizzling from the pan created a fairly impressive amount of sound.

Judging by Serena's body language, Ash determined that she didn't but was still shaken up by the past events.

He shook his head to the worried girl, who then let out a sigh of relief.

She leaned back into Ash's ear one more time.

"When we get old enough, you better _fuck me real good,_ " she whispered seductively before stepping away.

This left Ash redder than a tomato, reaching levels of redness beyond what he had reached a few minutes ago.

Serena then turned around and noticed the other female for the first time since she "left."

"Oh Leaf, there you are. Where were you? I thought you were gonna help with breakfast," Serena said, a hint of concern in her voice.

"Oh! I was uh… outside. I had to clear my mind, that's all," Leaf replied nervously.

"I guess the final is getting to you huh," Serena said.

 _"Wow I completely forgot about that,"_ Leaf thought to herself.

"Yeah, it's a little daunting but I'm good now," she said aloud.

Leaf then walked to the living room to retrieve her brother.

"That's good," Serena said. "Ash, get off the table, it's meant for food, not your ass."

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Ash replied, being snapped out of his thoughts.

The words Leaf last said to him were on replay in his head.

 _"Do I tell Gary? No, I don't think so, that's a little private,"_ Ash said.

"Go get the boys upstairs, hurry up," Serena said, snapping him out once more.

Serena was carefully moving food from the pan to several plates, assuring each person got an equal proportion.

"Ugh, fine MOM," Ash said aggressively.

He jumped off the table and started walking towards the stairs.

His last statement caused her to blush intensely and loosen her grip, almost causing the pan to slip out of her hand.

 _"You can't call me that right after I saw your cock print through your clothes!"_ Serena said mentally.

She had to stop what she was doing to settle down or she probably would've spilled something.

Once Ash reached the top of the stairs, he took several deep breaths, trying to calm his nerves from the events before.

He heard cheering from the other side of the door to his room which caused to remember why he climbed the stairs in the first place.

"That was some good shit, lil Pika!" Gary said as Ash walked through the door.

"Pika pikachu!" the little yellow creature replied.

Judging by Gary's reaction, Ash assumed Pikachu had complimented Gary.

Pikachu tilted his head slightly as he saw his trainer pop through the door.

"Hey guys, breakfast is ready," Ash said.

"Alright, we'll be down in a little bit," Gary replied. "I don't know who taught Pikachu how to play, but he is damn good Ash, much better than you."

Ash couldn't help but feel a little hurt by the statement. However, Gary wasn't lying, Pikachu was much better than Ash at video games.

When they were younger, Ash taught Pikachu how to play, which Pikachu quickly became addicted to. Ash started finding Pikachu stay up later and later hooked on playing a random assortment of games.

It had even gotten to the point that Pikachu took Ash to _buy_ games for him.

"Whatever Gary, let's just eat," Ash said with a little hurt in his voice.

Pikachu then scurried up to him, jumped on his shoulder, and rubbed his cheek on Ash's head, letting him know that he was loved, whether he was good at video games or not.

Gary got up soon after and followed the pair downstairs into the kitchen. Everyone else was already sitting, waiting on the final 3 to get to the table.

As they came in and sat down, everyone began eating.

The meal was fairly silent, the 6 youngins slowly picking away at Serena's eggs, bacon, and toast. Everyone's mind was more occupied with thinking of plans to counter each other's fighting style than to hold a friendly conversation.

They all knew that in a few hours, they'd be enemies.

Once everyone had finished their delicious meal, Ash took everyone's dishes and put them in the sink. He subconsciously began washing them, completely forgetting that it was Serena's 'favorite' method of clearing her mind and she would rather be doing it.

Ash thought she was full of shit when she first mentioned that, but that wasn't what was cluttering his mind at the moment.

His mind was more focused on, you guessed it, the first day of the finals.

Serena saw that he was really going at it, making her believe that he was troubled. She quickly glanced around the room and saw that everyone had left, leaving her and the lad alone.

"It works wonders huh?" Serena said.

"Huh?" Ash said confused.

He wasn't expecting anyone to be there.

"You're washing the dishes. I thought you said I was a liar when I said it was soothing," the honey blonde replied with a chuckle.

"Huh, what do you know, I guess I did get carried away," he replied, his eyes never leaving the dishes.

Serena took a few steps closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Being a few inches shorter than Ash, she rested her head on the back of his neck.

"It's okay Ash, everyone will do fine, we're all going to make it."

"I really hope so…" He replied with a sigh.

"Remember what you told me, 'don't give up until the very end.'"

"…Did I say that?"

"You mean you don't remember?" She said this with a slight attitude arising.

"No not really," he replied nervously. "I just… I… have a lot of memories with you guys, it's kinda hard to remember them all."

Because of her position, she could tell that he wasn't confident with the answer, leading her to believe he was lying. She just sighed and let it slide.

"Well that doesn't matter now. What does matter is that we all go out there and give it everything we got. We'll make it, no doubt."

Ash felt the confidence in her voice, it made him feel at ease.

 _"I guess her confidence really turns me on,"_ he thought. _"Why did I just think that? I'm supposed to be faithful to Leaf."_

Ash then felt Serena's lips press against his neck, sending a warm sensation throughout his body.

 _"Well… We never really made it official…"_

He put the dish he was currently working on back into the sink and turned around to face Serena.

She had a look of longing, but it was also mixed with fear. Ash didn't know why either look was present on her face but he was planning on finding out.

"What's wrong Serena?" Ash asked with concern.

"It's… nothing, really. I'm just a little nervous about the test too, that's all." Although, the test wasn't bothering her at all; the thought of confessing her feelings to Ash was.

However, Ash bought her excuse. He put his hands on her hips and looked her in the eyes, causing her to blush and look away.

"So you're gonna give me that whole pep talk and not feel any better about it?" he asked with a slight laugh.

"Shut up, Ash," she replied laughing.

She looked back at him and put her arms around his neck, pulling his face close to her's.

Next thing Ash knew, his lips were locked with Serena's.

 _"Is this what it's like to be… What did Gary call it? A fuckboy? Am I being a fuckboy?"_

He quickly pushed the thoughts away to focus on the intimate moment he was having with Serena.

He pulled her slender waist closer to him to feel her whole body pressed against his and deepen the kiss.

He slowly pushed his tongue into her mouth, which she willingly accepted, causing her to moan lightly.

Serena then pushed herself away, putting some distance between the two.

"No freebies young man," she closed the distance between them again. "If we pass, there's more where that came from."

She finished her sentence by giving Ash a quick peck on the lips before going upstairs.

Ash just shrugged it off and went back to doing the dishes. His mind was definitely more calm now, quickly finishing what he had left to do.

Red wasn't there to dry the dishes and Serena hadn't replaced him to put them away, so he just left them in the rack to air dry.

He went upstairs to find that Gary and Pikachu were playing games again, Leaf and Serena having girl talk on the bottom bunk (which kinda scared him), and Red sleeping on the top bunk.

The girls met him with a smile, which slightly put him at ease.

He didn't want to get caught messing around with both of them, he didn't know how they'd react or what it would do to the group.

His biggest fear, however, was Red.

The thought sent shivers down his spine, so he quickly brushed the thought off and joined Gary and Pikachu on the floor.

"Anyone gonna shower?" Leaf asked.

"Nah, it doesn't make sense to get dirty, clean up, and get dirty, then clean up again," Gary said.

"Well _I_ have to shower, I don't particularly enjoy being dirty," Serena said.

She then got up, grabbed her bag, and went to the bathroom.

"Women," Gary whispered only so Ash and Pikachu could hear it.

This earned a laugh from the two and an eye roll from Leaf.

Everyone else slowly started getting ready, not having to dress in their regular uniform. They opted to leave a little early to calm their nerves at the school.

The walk to school was much more lively this time as Gary was trying to lighten the mood with conversation.

Everyone got involved, aside from Red who doesn't normally talk, so that they felt at ease.

"Hey Ashy boy, race you to the door!" Gary yelled as he took off.

"Get back here Gary!" he yelled back.

Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder on to Red's, who reached up to scratch the electric mouse.

"I guess we should go after them," Leaf said.

"I'm not trying to get sweaty just yet," Serena replied.

Red just shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess we'll just walk then," Leaf said.

The walk for the three was silent. The most noise would be from Pikachu jumping from shoulder to shoulder, trying to get some affection from the humans.

As they walked to the back, they saw Ash and Gary both laying on the ground next to each other, panting.

"Had a good run idiots?" Serena asked with a laugh.

"It… was okay..." Gary managed to get out.

Ash raised a weak arm and said, "I won."

"Fuck… you…" Gary responded.

Ash then dropped his arm on Gary's chest causing him to start coughing uncontrollably.

Everyone else laughed at the exchange.

The other three decided to sit close to the wheezing boys and just talk until the time came for them to start day 1 of their final.

After a few minutes, Professor Oak and Korrina walk out the back door of the school and see the group relaxing.

"Well you all are here early, I wasn't expecting it," Oak said to them.

"Yeah, we couldn't wait so we came early," Gary said as he sat up.

"Then let's not waste time, who's up first?" Oak asked.

Ash, still laying on the ground, raised his hand again. "I'll go first."

"Splendid! Who will be his oppo-."

"I WILL BE HIS OPPONENT!" Gary yelled as he stood up.

The sudden outburst irritated Oak a little bit, but he just brushed it off.

"Okay, then the first battle will be Ash versus Gary. Get to your sides of the field," Oak said.

The other cleared the field and the two competitors took opposite ends of the field.

Pikachu decided a nap would have been perfect, so he ran up a tree and laid down on branch.

"Alright you two, you should know the rules, but I'll repeat them just in case you forgot," Oak said. "Rule number one! This will be a clean fight, no hitting below the belt or things of that nature."

The duo nodded.

"Rule number two! Blood does not equal match end. Your opponent may bleed but it won't be over until Korrina says it's over."

The duo nodded again.

"Rule number three! No running from your battles. If you leave the ring, you are disqualified and automatically fail."

The duo nodded for the final time.

Korrina walked to the middle of the field.

"Fighters, to me," she said.

They walked to her and met her in the middle of the field.

"Alright, you know the rules, any infraction and I take you down myself, understood? Okay, now shake hands," she said without allowing time for a response.

Ash and Gary shook hands, both with competitive smiles on their faces.

"Fight!"

This caught the pair off guard. They hadn't let each other go just yet, but Korrina yelled match start.

Gary was the first to react, slamming a quick punch on to Ash's face, sending him to the ground.

"While I'm not one for cheap shots, I'll take that freebie," Gary said cockily.

Ash just spit on the ground to check for blood. After he saw none, he got back up into a defensive stance.

"What? Nothing to say? I guess we should just fight then."

Ash then rushed his opponent, sending a right hook as soon as he could. Gary ducked swiftly before sending an uppercut into Ash's stomach.

Gary jumped back, creating some space between the two.

"Woo! That was a nice try Ash, but you gotta do better than that."

Ash slowly walked up Gary with his hands up. He started sending some quick jabs to test the waters before starting a barrage of punches to Gary's upper body.

Gary tried to dodge and block as much as he could, but he couldn't hold everything off, taking some damage.

He quickly pushed Ash back, who nearly lost his balance. Gary saw this and went in for a low sweep and knocked Ash on to his back.

Ash was dazed, unsure of Gary's exact position. Gary then sat on Ash's chest ready to send some punches to Ash's face.

"Night night, Ashy boy," Gary said.

Just as he was about to send a punch, Korrina grabbed his arm.

"That's enough. The victor is Gary Oak!"

Gary removed himself from Ash's chest and helped him up.

"It was a good battle bro, but you let me get to you, you shouldn't have done that," Gary said sympathetically.

Ash sighed. "Yeah I did, I don't know what happened."

"Hey, don't worry about it just yet, you have 3 other Guinea pigs to before the grandmaster herself decides to demolish us," Gary said.

"Yeah, you're right," Ash said with a chuckle.

The pair walked to the sidelines to meet the others.

"Damn Ash, you got messed up pretty quick," Leaf said.

"Yeah, yeah," Ash replied. "I'm gonna kick your ass next."

"Oh? Is that a threat?" Leaf said.

"You and me, right now," Ash said as he put his hands up in a defensive position.

"Nah, I don't want 3 punches to end the battle," Leaf said.

"Damn dude, she's really underestimating you," Gary said.

Ash slumped over, feeling his pride take a hit.

"First I get physically beaten, now I'm getting emotionally tortured," Ash said dejectedly.

"Don't worry about it Ashy boy, just show her who's boss," Gary said.

"I SAID NEXT CHALLENGER!"

Oak was fuming. He had been calling for the next challenger for the past few minutes, but no one seemed to hear him.

Serena and Red looked at each other and nodded. Without a word, the two walked to opposite sides of the field.

"Fighters, to me," Korrina said from the middle of the field.

The two friends walked to the middle of the field.

"You know the rules. Shake hands," Korrina said.

They expected Korrina to pull another fast one, but it never came.

"Step back you two," she said.

They back pedaled a few steps and looked at Korrina.

"Begin!"

Red put his arms up in a defensive stance as Serena rushed him. She kicked his inner knee, causing his stance to drop for a split second.

Serena didn't take advantage of it, allowing him to recover. He stepped closer and hardened his defenses, not allowing himself to falter a second time.

 _"Okay, I know how Red fights, he's going to try something slick right about…"_

Immediately, Red lunged at her with powerful punch with his right hand. However, he had missed.

Serena predicted the attack and turned her body to dodge before sending a devastating uppercut with her left hand into his rib cage.

Red dropped both of his arms due to the pain. Serena tried to follow up with right hook, but Red saw it coming and quickly ducked.

Serena predicted that too, sending her left knee upward into his jaw.

Red fell to the ground, pain surging through his body.

 _"She's not gonna wear out any time soon, I gotta act fast before I get knocked out,"_ Red thought.

Serena showed mercy, allowing Red to get up and brush himself off.

 _"Okay I'm doing good, let's not get cocky though,"_ she said to herself.

Red put his hands up, finally recovering from the devastating blows he had received.

Serena smirked, imitating his stance.

Red stepped forward and sent a straight punch to her face. She quickly leaned to one side and saw Red smile.

Next thing she knew, she saw the sky.

Red had allowed his punch to miss so she'd lean, giving him the opportunity to sweep her off her feet.

He stood over her body and raised his leg, ready to drop his heel into her chest.

Serena's eyes widened and she rolled to the side as he dropped his foot into the dirt. She quickly got back up and into a defensive stance.

Red rushed her and jumped, attempting to kick her in the process.

Serena easily caught it though and jabbed her elbow into his thigh before tossing it aside.

Red tried to get up, pain searing through his leg.

 _"I got him limping, now's my chance!"_ she thought.

Serena ran up to him and raised her arm to hammer his skull into the ground.

Red quickly raised his arms to form an X to block her arm. She foresaw the block and sent her knee into his ribs again.

He was sent to the ground once more. This time he didn't get up.

"Red is unable to battle, Serena is the winner!" Korrina said.

Serena walked up to Red and held a hand out to help him up. He looked up to the owner of the hand and saw a soft smile on her face. He returned the smile and allowed her to help her up.

He put his arm around her and leaned on her for support. They slowly walked to the sidelines where the others sat.

"Sorry if I was too rough," Serena said meekly.

"It's fine," he said with a smile.

"You sure? I think I did go a little overboard," she said, her smile dropping a bit.

"No, it's all a part of battle," he said with his smile shining through.

 _"Wow, this is the most I've gotten him to talk,"_ Serena thought to herself.

As they reached the others, Leaf and Gary helped Red sit next to Ash who wasn't is the best shape either.

"Looks like we both got messed up pretty bad, huh Red," Ash said.

Red laughed a bit and nodded his head.

"Okay, well since I'm still in pretty good shape, no offense Red, I think I can go again," Serena said.

"Sure you don't wanna sit for a bit?" Ash asked.

"No, I'm fired up and I don't wanna lose my momentum," Serena said full of confidence.

"Well I guess I coul-."

"I'LL FIGHT YOU!" Gary yelled.

Leaf wanted to fight Serena first to get it out of the way, but Gary's overpowering voice blocked all traces of sound from Leaf's mouth.

"Okay let's go!" Serena said.

The two stood on opposite sides of the field.

Leaf sunk to floor, feeling an overwhelming sense of pressure. She clenched her eyes tightly and hugged her knees.

 _"I don't wanna go last! I feel like I'm gonna fail now!"_ She was mentally beating herself.

Tears slowly formed in her eyes before she felt a soft nudge on her side.

When she looked, she was Red, concern written all over her face. He weakly raised his hand and wiped her tears from her face.

"Come here sis," he said softly.

His voice sent her over the edge. She jumped into his arms and started sobbing.

"I don't wanna fail Red! I want to stay with you guys, and go on fun adventures, and graduate!"

Red just hummed a song into her ears and rubbed her back until the girl stopped crying.

Ash watched the whole thing go down. Truthfully, he was about to fall asleep when he heard Leaf start crying. He looked over and saw the brunette clinging on to Red like he was dying.

 _"She really doesn't have confidence in herself huh…"_ Ash thought. _"I'll help her with that."_

Ash stared at the pair until Leaf stopped crying and got herself together. More thoughts started forming but couldn't be completed as Korrina's words shot through his head.

"Serena is the victor!"

He turned to the battlefield and saw Gary fully unconscious with a goofy smile on his face.

Serena appeared extremely upset, not even helping the unconscious boy up. She stormed over to the sidelines and sat in between Ash and Red.

"What happened to you Fiesty Pants?" Ash said with a chuckle.

"Oh so you weren't even watching?! What is wrong with you people!" Serena turned around and had her back to Ash.

"… Was it something I said?" Ash asked.

His question went completely unanswered as she didn't even acknowledge him.

"* _sigh*_ Well, I've been on my ass for too long, time to get back in," he said.

He picked himself up and walked to the field. Gary was still unconscious, so he grabbed him by the shirt collar and dragged him to the sidelines.

After depositing his best friend, he turned to Leaf, who was still in Red's arms.

"Leaf, wanna take me on next?" Ash asked.

The question caught her off guard, not expecting anyone to notice her.

"I don't know Ash… I don't feel ready," she replied.

"Come on Leaf, that wasn't what you were saying this morning."

He extended his hand to her. She grabbed it and allowed her to be pulled up.

Ash held her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes.

"You're gonna do great Leaf, I know it," he said.

He then pulled her into a gentle embrace.

"If you win, I'll fuck you into next week," he whispered.

This sent a blush straight to her cheeks. Luckily, her back was to everyone else so now one saw her reaction.

Ash pulled himself out, winked, and walked to his side of the field.

 _"He really knows what to say at the right time,"_ she thought.

She followed him on to the field and met in the middle by Korrina.

"You know the drill. FIGHT!"

Both were, once again, caught off guard by the sudden match start and jumped away from each other.

Leaf rushed in and tried to catch him in the face with a roundhouse kick.

Ash, still a little weak from his first battle, blocked it but was thrown to the side by the sheer force.

"Damn Leaf, I didn't know you were that strong," Ash said as he got to one knee.

Leaf didn't respond but got into another aggressive stance instead.

Ash took off running at her and full on football tackled her to the ground. He clung on to her stomach, letting go only to send punches to her ribs.

Leaf took her elbow and jabbed it into his back multiple times until his grip weakened and she was able to force her way out.

She scrambled to her feet and saw that Ash had now gotten on to all fours. She slowly approached him and kicked him in his stomach. This left Ash flat on his back.

Leaf was about to do more damage but Korrina put her arm in front of her.

"I've seen enough, victory goes to Leaf."

Leaf let out a deep sigh of relief. She was interrupted by a cough from the raven-haired boy on the ground.

He looked up at her, smiled, and put up a weak thumbs up.

"I told you you could do it," he said before passing out.

She laughed a bit before picking him up and resting him next to Gary, who was still unconscious.

 _"They look peaceful now. We don't have to worry about them doing anything dumb now,"_ she thought to herself.

"You should've put him on Gary so they'd be a pile of stupid," Serena said aggressively.

"What's got you so heated?" Leaf said with a light laugh.

"Gary _motorboated_ _me_ and thought it was funny."

"Oh…" Leaf said, understanding her plight. _"Good thing they're unconscious."_

"Fucking pervert," she said. "Come on, we have a fight to start."

She didn't even wait for a response, immediately walking to Korrina.

"Uhh… Okay…" Leaf said hesitantly.

Gary slowly woke up. His vision still hazy from the flurry of pain he received from Serena, but there was no doubt someone was lying next to him.

He squinted his eyes to try to focus them, but still couldn't make out who it was. When that failed, he moved closer to them.

The other figure then shifted slightly and opened their eyes.

Gary's eyes finally became clear, but he wished they hadn't. It was Ash next to him.

Both of them were laying next to each other with their faces a few centimeters apart and staring into each other's eyes.

They both quickly rolled over in embarrassment.

"That never happened, agreed?" Gary said.

"Agreed," Ash responded.

Red watched the entire scene from start to finish and started laughing uncontrollably.

"That's between us right Red?" Gary said with a little aggression in his voice.

Red couldn't even respond, he was still laughing.

"You're gonna regret laughing at me Red."

"The victor is Leaf!" Korrina yelled.

 _"Perfect,"_ Gary thought to himself. "Come on Red, you and me, right now."

Red slowly broke out of his laughing fit and stood up. While waiting for the girls to reach them, he stretched his muscles out, trying to get them back to full functionality.

"That was a really good fight Serena," Leaf said.

"It was very relaxing, honestly," she replied. "I'm not even mad I lost, I was surprised when you caught me in that arm bar."

 _"They were wrestling?!"_ Gary thought. _"And I wasn't watching?! Red is really going to get it now!"_

The two new competitors were both on their sides of the field. As Korrina signaled the start of the match, Gary unleashed a fierce battle cry and rushed Red.

The match didn't last very long.

Red simply side stepped and tripped Gary before putting him into a chokehold, forcing him to tap out.

Because there were minimal injuries, excluding Gary's pride, they just walked to the sidelines in silence.

Gary plopped himself on the ground and began sulking.

 _"I can't be doing too good in the ratings, I have to make it up with my last few battles. I already battled Ash, Serena, and Red so that leaves…_ Leaf _…"_ Gary thought. _"I'll have to fight her smart if I want to have any chance of winning."_

"Come on lil bro, you and me next," Leaf said.

Red just huffed and walked to the field.

"You're older?" Serena asked.

"Yeah, by a few seconds. Everyone thinks he's older though," Leaf said.

"Yeah I think we all thought that way," Ash said.

"Losers…" Leaf mumbled under her breath.

She then walked to her side of the field and met Red in the middle.

"Fight!" Korrina yelled.

The two assumed aggressive positions, but made no move.

"Don't go easy on me now, I don't want to embarrass you," Lead said.

Red growled and sent a speedy roundhouse to her face.

Leaf ducked and moved in to kick the inside of his knee, causing him to fall.

 _"Well doesn't this seem familiar…"_ he thought.

He got back up and closed the distance between them.

Leaf put up a defensive front, expecting him to put some pressure on her.

Just as she expected, he sent a fist flying her way. She put her arms up to block it, but it never came.

Immediately, she felt a sharp pain in her gut, causing her to keel over.

Red faked the initial punch which left Leaf's stomach wide open.

Leaf put her hands to her stomach, which she instantly regret. Red sent her a nasty right hook which sent her to her back.

Red sat on her chest, not allowing her to get up. He raised his fist to punch her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Come on Red, finish me. Do it," Leaf said weakly.

He tried again, but couldn't. The sister he spent 14 years protecting was now being beaten by _himself_.

He lowered his fist and closed his eyes.

"Weak."

That was all he heard. His eyes snapped open to see Leaf slap both of his ears, causing him to go dizzy and his ears to ring.

Leaf took advantage of him being dazed and pushed him off before assuming another defensive position.

Red slowly recovered, regaining his balance, and standing back up. He tried to shake whatever dizziness was left, but couldn't manage to shake it all off.

Leaf just walked up to him, grabbed him by his neck, and sent him a head butt, causing him to pass out.

"The victor is Leaf!" Korrina yelled.

Leaf tried to pick Red up, but he was much too heavy for her to do it alone. Luckily, Serena was already on the scene and helping her drag her unconscious brother to the sidelines.

"Damn Leaf, that was brutal," Ash said.

"Yeah, I didn't think you had it in you," Serena said.

"Red has always had a soft spot for me, so I had to make sure that isn't his weakness," Leaf explained. "I need him to know I could handle myself, so I had to go extra hard on him."

The other two nodded in understanding.

"Think you can handle him Leaf?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, I think I can watch a sleeping person," Leaf said with a chuckle.

"Ha ha, I was just making sure if you were alright," he replied. "Serena, ready for our fight?"

"You bet, let's go," Serena replied.

 ** _Meanwhile_**

 _Red found himself in a black room. It seemed boundless in all directions, no type of landmarks anywhere._

 _"Where am I?" he said aloud._

 _He saw a figure approaching him. He couldn't make out who the person was until they were a few feet away._

 _When he recognized who it was, his eyes widened._

 _"Fa-father?" Red said._

 _"Yes son, it's me. It's been awhile hasn't it?" Red's father had his arms open, ready to embrace his son._

 _Red ran to him, immediately hugging the man as tightly as he could._

 _"Father, I've missed you." Red was fighting tears at this point. "It's been 8 years. I've missed you. Leaf misses you."_

 _"I know son. I've missed you both dearly. Have you been fulfilling my last request?"_

 _Red still remembered that fateful day like it was yesterday._

Flashback

Red and Leaf, at the age of 6, were running around the house.

Their father came down the stairs, dressed in camouflage, a suit made of grass over his shoulder. He was carrying a very long, hard-shell case, making sure not to bump any of the furniture on the way out.

"Hey kids, daddy's got to go now, I don't know how long I'll be gone so please behave for your mother," he said.

"Yes poppa," the pair said.

"Where are you going poppa?" Red said as he approached the man.

His father put the case down and knelt by his son.

"I'll tell you when you're older okay? You're the man of the house now, take care of your mother and Leaf."

"Yes poppa!"

With that, their father kissed both of his children on the forehead, picked the case up, and left.

About a month later, two men in uniforms knocked on the door.

Red and Leaf both peeked around a corner and watched their mother open the door.

"Oh no…" their mother said. She instantly knew what the news was and began to break down.

The men sent their condolences and went on their way.

Their mother had not moved from the front of the door, still sobbing her eyes out.

The two children approached their mother, unsure of what's going on.

"He's gone… Daddy's not coming home…" their mother managed.

She held her children in a tight embrace, continuing to sob uncontrollably. Leaf joined her in uncontrollable sobbing, while Red stayed silent, only letting silent tears drop from his eyes.

Flashback End.

 _"Yes father, I'm taking good care of them. Both of them are healthy and happy," Red said to the figure._

 _"Very good."_

 _"Where did you go? Why did you leave us?"_

 _His father sighed. "I know I promised to tell you when you're older, but I'm afraid I can't."_

 _Red realized that his mind was just playing tricks on him. He shut his eyes, trying to savor the last few moments he had with the figment of his imagination that was his father._

 _When he opened his eyes, his father was gone._

Red shot up out of his sleep. The first thing he saw was Serena in Ash's chokehold.

"Oh you're awake," he heard.

He looked to his side and saw Leaf next to him with a soft smile.

He hugged her tightly, not letting her go.

"Alright big fella, I know you got your ass beat, but you don't have to get all soft of me," she choked out. "Okay Red, too tight!"

Red let go, a shy smile on his face.

"Don't worry about it, I'm used to it already," she said.

The pair that just fought finally made their way to the sidelines.

"Damn Ash, you don't have to choke me so hard next time," Serena said.

"Yeah well you didn't have to elbow me in my jaw so aggressively either," he replied while rubbing his jaw.

Ash looked around for his spiky haired friend and saw him sulking in his little corner still. He decided to leave Gary alone since he thought he was asleep.

"Red, you and me next?" Ash said.

Red nodded and stood up to stretch a bit. He signaled Ash that he was ready and they both made their way to the field.

Korrina started her pre-match rituals and then started the round.

 _"I'll show you how strong I've gotten father,"_ Red thought.

Red put his hands up defensively as Ash approached him. Ash started sending quick jabs. They suddenly had more power behind them and came at an increased volume.

Red was skillfully dodge and blocking, negating all damage coming his way.

Ash soon became winded, having fought 3 times for the day was extremely tiring.

Red saw this and made his move. He punched Ash straight in the gut then sent him a left hook, similarly to what he did to Leaf in his previous fight.

He didn't stop there, however. Ash hadn't fallen, he just stumbled at bit before recovering.

Red approached him and sent him a roundhouse kick, connecting with Ash's jaw. This time he was sent to the floor.

Ash spit on the ground and saw blood. He attempted to get up, but couldn't, he didn't have the strength.

Red looked at Korrina, expecting her to call it.

"Finish him," she said.

He looked down at his long time friend and saw indescribable amounts of pain. He couldn't do it.

"I forfeit," Red said.

He didn't even wait for Korrina to call who won, he just slung Ash over his shoulder and brought him to the sidelines. He set him down next to the girls.

"Is he okay?" Serena said.

"Yeah… I'm fine…" Ash struggled to get those words out.

"I apologize Ash," Red said sincerely.

"You're fine Red, I'm glad you gave it everything you got." Ash tried to raise his arm, but felt too weak to do so.

"I'll take you to the infirmary," Red said.

Ash nodded with a smile on his face. Red leaned down and put his arm around Ash's torso while Ash had his arm around Red's shoulder.

"Let Gary know I wish him good luck. You too Leaf," Ash said.

"Thanks Ash, please get well," Leaf said.

"Don't worry about me, just focus on your test."

"Okay, I will."

Ash and Red then limped away to get help.

Leaf got up shortly and walked over to Gary. She lightly kicked him to get his attention.

"Come on Gary, let's go," Leaf said.

Gary silently got up and followed her to the battlefield.

 _"It all ends here, I have to play it smart,"_ Gary thought. _"I don't even win, I just need to show Gramps I can fight smart."_

They met Korrina in the middle and waited for the match to start.

"Begin!"

They both took aggressive stances and began circling each other.

Leaf noticed that Gary wasn't smiling like he normally did, he had a really serious look instead.

"What happened Gary? Gave up on smack talking?" Leaf said.

Gary smiled. "Maybe I just wanna get a real good look at the girl in front of me."

This brought a blush to her face. She rushed and immediately tried to kick his leg to disable him, but Gary grabbed it and threw it to the side.

This threw her off balance and made her unaware of Gary's position.

He sent a side kick that hit Leaf directly in her stomach, causing her to fall to her knees in pain.

She slowly got up, despite the nauseous feeling, and took another aggressive stance.

"Come at me," she said tauntingly.

He kicked her in the back of her knees, sending her to the ground once more. He quickly send a punch across her cheek.

"That's enough, Gary is the winner."

He extended a hand down to Leaf and helped her up.

"I didn't know you had it in you to hit a girl," she said.

"If it means that I won't be in the group anymore, I'll beat anyone up," Gary responded.

They walked back to the sidelines and sat down.

"That was a pretty one-sided fight," Serena said.

"Yeah, Gary got the best of me. I couldn't even land a single hit," Leaf said.

"You did fine Leaf, don't worry about it too much," Gary said.

"Who said I was worried?" Leaf said with her arms crossed.

Gary just huffed and smiled.

Soon after, Red and Ash returned, Ash no longer needing support from the other boy.

"Ash you're back," Serena said.

"Yeah, they just gave me some painkillers, bandaged me up, and kicked me out," he said.

"Well at least you look okay," Leaf said.

"Yeah I feel fine," Ash said.

Oak and Korrina both walked up to the group.

The group turned and sat to meet the adults that were there.

"Well I must commend you all on your fighting skills, you all have improved greatly over the course of the year," Oak said.

"I have to agree, I remember when Leaf and Serena couldn't even throw a solid punch," Korrina said.

"Okay, okay we get it, what are results?" Gary said.

"Well you all passed the first part of the test," Oak said.

Everyone started cheering and high fives were had all around.

"Let's not get too happy now, you still have 2 more parts to complete," Korrina said.

"Speaking of, I decided to change the second part," Oak said. "After today, I decided it was too long and and will be too tiring for the Pokemon."

"How will you change it?" Ash said.

"You will all have to battle all at one time," Oak said.

"That's insanity, how will we keep track?" Serena asked.

"That's for you to find out, maybe you'll have to team up, who knows," Oak said.

The group looked at each other with worried expression.

"Well that's all for today, have a wonderful day!" Oak said.

With that, Oak and Korrina returned to the school.

"This is about to be a clusterfuck, I can feel it," Gary said to break the silence.

"Yeah, I've never even heard of a 5-way battle before," Ash replied.

Everyone else agreed with the boys. Several minutes of talking later, they went to their separate homes; Gary and Serena to Oak's ranch/lab/home, Leaf and Red to their family home, and Ash to his.

The walk gave Ash a chance to think about the day. He recalled the events from his home this morning, what happened between him and Leaf and Serena, and the fights that took place.

He felt that everyone had a strange ulterior motive that caused everyone to act differently in the fight.

His thoughts were interrupted when he finally reached his front door. He unlocked the door and walked inside to see his mother cooking.

"Hey there Ash, how was the first part of your test today?" Delia asked.

"It was pretty interesting, can't really complain though," he replied.

His thoughts drifted off when he saw Braixen walk in and smile at him.

 _"Hmm... Serena left Braixen here. But wait... Where's Pikachu?"_

Ash recalled the day's events and remembered seeing Pikachu asleep in a tree.

 _"PIKACHU!"_ Ash thought.

"I'll be back mom!" Ash cried.

As he opened the door, he saw a fairly disappointed Pikachu standing on the other side.

"Oh hey there buddy, how you doing?" Ash asked nervously.

"Pika pi," Pikachu responded, walking past Ash into the open door.

Delia greeted Pikachu and proceeded to feed him.

"I'm gonna go shower mom," Ash said.

He went upstairs and showered. He looked in the mirror and saw multiple bruises all over his body.

"Damn I got fucked up," Ash said to himself.

He went back to his room and clothed himself. Soon after, his mom called him downstairs to eat.

After his healthy meal, he laid down on the couch and started watching TV with Pikachu and Braixen. Soon after, they all fell asleep.

Ash was woken up by the sound of knocking on his door. He knew his friends were going to break in, but they never knocked.

Braixen was also awoken by the knocking and accompanied Ash as he walked to the door. She pulled the stick out of her tail, ready to launch an attack if need be.

Ash looked at her and nodded. He quickly opened the door and Braixen pointed the stick at the open door, ready to spray fire.

Ash and Braixen saw it was Leaf on the other side of the door and let out a sigh of relief. Braixen went back to the living room to lay back down, leaving the pair alone.

"Hey Ash," Leaf said.

"Hey, where's everyone else?" he asked.

"It's just me."

"Oh… Well come inside, I'm sure it's cold out there," he said as he stepped out of the way.

"Thanks," she said as she walked in.

She brought all the typical stuff she usually brought when the group broke in, so Ash figured that she wanted to come early.

"So what brings you to these parts at this time?" Ash said with a smile.

He subconsciously led her up the stairs, being the place she usually left her stuff.

"I just wanted to have some alone time with you," she said.

They walked into Ash's room and Leaf put down her stuff. Ash sat on his bed, having not a clue of what Leaf's intentions were.

"Well you have me, what do you want to do?" Ash said.

Leaf sat on his lap facing him. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him in.

"I wanna fuck," she said seductively.

The words hit Ash like a brick; he had completely forgot about the promise he made to her earlier.

"Besides, you promised we would if I won," she said matter-of-factly.

She pulled Ash into a deep kiss, forcing him on to his back. She was now on top of the boy, taking control of the events to come.

"You ready Ash?" Leaf whispered.

"Bring it," he whispered back.

* * *

 **(A/N: Hey there, so this chapter was pretty long. I was originally gonna split it into two but I couldn't find a spot to break it that wouldn't leave one too short.**

 **In other news, this was my first time writing battles and fight scenes, so please let me know how I did. There were a lot too, so that didn't help my situation. I also thought about making lemon at the end, but I decided to leave it up your imagination. If I get a few requests to write lemons, then I'll add them, but for now, it's up to you guys.**

 **Now on to the story. We see how both females are trying to pursue Ash. Just know, only one gets Ash in the end, I've already planned out who. Maybe it's one of the two, maybe it's someone I introduce later, who knows. We see a lot of each characters' flaws and weaknesses, why they do what they do, and how they choose to take it on, even the reason behind Red's silence. Everything plays a role sooner or later, don't worry about that.**

 **As for my updates, I'll still push them as often as I write them. The first 3 chapters came out fairly quickly because I already had them written and edited, they just needed to be uploaded. I just finished this chapter so as soon as this goes up, Chapter 5 is going down.**

 **Until next time, please review, follow, favorite, PM me, all the things. See ya!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Day Y

"Wow Ash…" Leaf said while exhaling deeply.

The raven-haired boy just relaxed into his pillow, smiling.

The pair just finished their night of fun and were now relaxing, enjoying each other's embrace. At least they were until a knock on the door came.

Leaf scrambled under the sheets and Ash pulled out his phone to look unsuspicious.

"Who is it?" he called from his bed.

"It's Serena, do you have a moment?" she said without opening the door.

Leaf popped her head from under the sheets and looked at Ash with a confused face.

"Your call," she said before retreating into the sheets.

Ash just sighed. He just hoped she wouldn't try anything with Leaf there.

"Yeah, come in," he said.

Serena walked in and observed her surroundings.

Ash had a worried look on his face, but Serena didn't notice it. What she did notice was the distraught Pikachu laying down on the top bunk.

"What's up with Pikachu?" Serena asked.

Ash and Leaf both had a moment of realization.

 _"We forgot about Pikachu!"_ they both thought.

"Uhh… I'm not too sure, maybe he didn't sleep too well," he said sheepishly.

Pikachu started grumbling to himself before hopping off the bunk and walking out the door.

"Well… Alright then…" Serena said confused.

She looked back at Ash and noticed that he didn't have a shirt on, but paid no mind to it as it was his room.

"So what's up Serena?" Ash asked.

"Oh, well Red and Gary are downstairs and we were all wondering if you saw Leaf since yesterday. We were all hanging out and she just kind of left without saying anything," Serena said.

"You guys were hanging out without me?.." Ash asked, visibly hurt.

"Oh! We, uh… meant to call you but Leaf said she'd handle it," Serena said.

Ash felt Leaf shift under the sheets slightly.

"Hmph… Well as a matter of fact, yeah, Leaf did show up a few hours ago. We had a small conversation and she said she wanted to go for a walk so she left," Ash lied.

"Okay, it's just that Red is a little worried, you should call her and tell her to meet us here," Serena said.

"Okay, I will," Ash said.

He picked up his phone and dialed her number but didn't hit the call button.

"Hey Leaf, where are you? Everyone's already here and Red's kinda worried… Oh you'll be here soon? Okay, well just knock when you get here… Alright, bye," Ash said, faking a conversation. "She'll be here soon, Serena."

Serena bought it all.

"Okay good," Serena said, relief washing over her face.

She looked down at his phone and vaguely saw what was on her screen. She could only make out what looked to be a person with their legs spread out. She slowly realized what it was and turned beet red.

"What's wrong Serena?" Ash asked, noticing the change in her expression.

"Well… uh… I guess I interrupted something didn't I?" she said while pointing at his phone.

He looked at the screen and saw Leaf's nude body on the screen. His face turned pale and he quickly locked his phone.

"No! It's not what you think!" Ash said.

Serena just looked away, not believing what he was saying.

"Well… I'll let you finish then…" she said as she left the room.

Ash heard her quickly run down the stairs before a scream pierced his ears.

"You can come out now," he said.

Leaf popped her head out and had a guilty look on her face.

"So you were hanging out with them and didn't invite me?" Ash said.

"I mean… I was going to, but I decided to come here and hang out with you instead," she replied.

Ash glared at her hard, causing her to flinch.

"Don't tell me you would've hung out with them instead of doing what we did last night," Leaf said, a frown appearing on her face.

Ash's face softened, a small smile forming on his lips.

"I guess I shouldn't be mad that I didn't get invited," Ash said.

"Good," Leaf said before hopping out of bed.

She quickly changed and looked at Ash, who never got out of bed.

"So how am I going to make it to the front door?" Leaf asked.

Ash just shrugged.

"Ugh, you're so useless sometimes," Leaf said.

"Just walk downstairs and say you broke into my window," Ash said uncaringly.

"Ash, you live on the second floor, it's not like you have a ladder just sitting outside," Leaf said, visibly irritated.

Ash quickly got up from his bed and opened the window. Leaf noticed that he hadn't put back on his boxers and blushed slightly. Ash noticed her stare and caught her attention before pointing out the window. Leaf followed the gesture and saw a ladder conveniently  
/placed by his window.

"Fuck you," Leaf said harshly, the blush quickly disappearing.

"Hey now, no need to get aggressive," Ash said, smiling and getting back into bed.

Leaf just grunted and left his room. She slowly walked down the stairs and saw the other three sitting on separate couches, watching TV. Gary was the first to notice the brunette's arrival.

"Well look who showed up, we were just wondering when you'd get here," Gary said.

The other two looked at her and smile, relief appearing on Red's face.

"Yeah, sorry I just left last night, I needed some fresh air," Leaf replied.

"How did you get in?" Serena asked, a curious look on her face.

The others realized that she didn't come through the front door and took on similar expressions.

"Oh, I climbed in through Ash's window. Couldn't just walk in, that'd be too easy," Leaf responded.

The confusion faded from everyone's face.

"Good on you, Leaf. Keep the tradition alive," Gary said.

Leaf felt a pair of eyes digging into her soul since she entered the room. She quickly searched for a pair and saw they were attached to a familiar yellow mouse.

She gave him a sorry expression, while he just shot back with pure anger.

 _"I'll make it up to him soon,"_ Leaf said.

Pikachu just curled up, anger still on his face, against a bush of yellow fur, which Leaf realized belonged to Braixen.

Leaf watched his expression fade as he slowly drifted to sleep. She broke her gaze from the furry little guy before joining her brother on the couch.

Ash descended from the stairs a few minutes later, still barely clothed, but more decent that he was when Leaf left.

"Morning guys," Ash said as he entered the living room.

Everyone responded, not looking away from the TV. He chose to sit next to Serena, thinking that he could lay down on her lap if he started feeling tired.

As soon as he sat, however, he just rested her head on her lap and instantly fell asleep. Serena blushed slightly at the contact but quickly brushed it off and looked back at the TV.

They all sat in silence for a few hours, several of them fading in and out of sleep. Serena was the only one to stay awake the entire time, glancing at everyone as they slept. She wanted to get up to cook breakfast for everyone, but couldn't because she  
/didn't want to wake Ash.

She didn't even notice that Ash had wrapped his arms around her while he was asleep. She just sighed and turned her attention back to the TV, subconsciously running her fingers through his hair.

Leaf woke up soon after and saw the position Ash and Serena were in. She wasn't too comfortable with it, but she didn't really care, she felt like she had Ash on a leash.

Serena noticed the other female wake up and start stretching.

"Hey Leaf, is it okay if you make breakfast today? I don't wanna wake Ash," Serena asked.

Leaf just nodded and smiled before walking to the kitchen. She rummaged through the fridge for some time, slowly trying to decide what comprised a balanced breakfast in the Ketchum household.

She decided on a simple meal consisting of pancakes with assorted fruit. None of the others ever had any preference but she knew that Pikachu particularly enjoyed them, especially with whipped cream.

She started making the batter and began pouring some on the hot pan when she heard something shuffle behind her. She turned around and saw Braixen approach her with Pikachu in tow.

"Hey guys, wanna help me make breakfast?" Leaf asked.

Braixen smiled and nodded her head. She used to help Serena bake treats all the time so she was no stranger to the kitchen.

Pikachu, on the other hand, quickly made a 180 and returned to the living room.

The other two just giggled and got back to making breakfast.

Everyone in the other room remained asleep until the aroma of pancakes pulled them out of their slumber. Both Ash and Gary's head shot up at the scent and made a mad dash to the kitchen.

Serena and Red were startled by the duo's sudden movement and took a minute to recover before heading to the kitchen to meet the others.

Ash, Gary, and Pikachu were already digging in to their shares of the food, viciously tearing apart the fluffy cakes. Serena and Red just smiled at the trio before sitting down and waiting for their share.

The three had already finished their plates before Leaf and Braixen even sat to eat. They had already agreed to go upstairs and play video games, so they brought their dishes to the sink before dashing up the stairs and closing the door loudly.

"They're such a mess," Serena said with a slight laugh.

Leaf chuckled a bit. "Yeah, but I wouldn't have it any other way. How come you can't be hyper like them Red?"

Red just huffed before smiling and laughing. He couldn't think of himself being like that, it was a useless waste of energy to him.

"What's so funny you boulder head?" Leaf said teasingly.

Red just smiled at her before noticing his plate was empty. He got up and placed his dishes in the sink before heading up the stairs too.

"He's an interesting guy," Serena said.

"Ehh, he's weird. I don't even know why he doesn't talk that often," Leaf said. "He used to be pretty talkative, believe it or not. But then all of a sudden, he stopped."

"Oh…" Serena didn't know how to respond to that, she felt like she struck a nerve.

"It's fine, he still acts the same, he just doesn't talk," Leaf said, detecting the nervousness in her blonde friend's face.

Serena just nodded in response. She felt like she was in a minefield and she didn't want to risk stepping in the wrong place. The two, and Braixen, finished their meals and began cleaning the kitchen.

Serena started washing the dishes while Braixen used her fire attacks lightly to speed dry the dishes so that Leaf could put them away.

Serena was in deep thought, as she always was when she washed dishes. The other two females noticed. Leaf gave Braixen a signal to give the two some privacy. Braixen silently agreed and left.

"Something on your mind Serena?" Leaf said.

Serena's head snapped up, her thoughts interrupted by Leaf's voice. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing."

"It doesn't seem like nothing." Leaf opted to stop working and give Serena her undivided attention.

Serena sighed. "Keep it between us girls okay?"

"You got it," Leaf said reassuringly.

"Well… I'm in love with Ash, but I'm too nervous to tell him."

This caught Leaf off guard. She felt her temper rising, but kept it down. Serena continued, assuming Leaf's silence demanded it.

"It's just that, I've never felt so much support for anything I've done from anyone else. He's just been a great guy and I honestly don't know where I'd be without him."

Leaf's rage subsided enough for her to respond. "What do you mean?"

"Yesterday, I told Ash nearly everything about my family back in Kalos. He thought that I hated Kanto so he did everything he could to make me feel at home. No one has ever done that for me," Serena said.

"That's Ash for you, always putting others before himself," Leaf said with a smile.

"Yeah, and I love that about him. In all honesty, he's perfect to me. I just wish I could have the courage to tell him how I feel."

This caused Leaf to think about her relationship with Ash. Since she was young, she felt massive amounts of attraction toward the raven haired boy, but as she grew older, those feeling of attraction turned to lust. She realized the only reason she felt  
/upset when she sees Ash and Serena interact is because she doesn't want to lose her toy now that she just got it.

"You should tell him," Leaf said.

"But how? I don't know how to…" Serena said solemnly.

Leaf didn't want to give him up, but she really felt that Serena deserved someone amazing, and Ash happened to be right there. Besides, she could always find someone else to do those things with.

"Just get him alone and tell him straight up, no need for anything else," Leaf said. "Go upstairs right now and pull him aside."

"What?! Right now?! I can't do that!" Serena said nervously.

"I'll take over the dishes, now you go and get your man," Leaf said with a smile.

Serena sighed. "Well I guess I should get it over with."

"Great, now run along," Leaf said, pushing Serena to the stairs.

Serena began to climb the stairs slowly, trying to plan out her move.

Leaf returned to the sink and continued washing the dishes. She regret giving Ash up almost immediately. She felt like she could have given it more time and maybe messed around some more, but she felt like she'd already gotten what she wanted.

Serena nervously knocked on the door and slowly opened it. When she peeped in, she saw 4 pairs of eyes staring at her. Gary and Pikachu were in their usual spot playing video games while Red and Ash were both on their phones.

She immediately felt intimidated and regret following Leaf's orders.

"What's up Serena?" Ash asked.

"Can I talk to you in private really quick Ash?" Serena said nervously.

"Sure," Ash said as he got up.

Serena led him into the bathroom where she closed the door and locked it. She then turned on the shower and looked at Ash, who had a very confused look on his face.

"What's going on?.." Ash asked.

"I needed to make sure that no one's eavesdropping," Serena said sheepishly.

The confusion dropped from Ash's face.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Ash asked.

"Well Ash… Leaf and I talked and she convinced me that I should just tell you…" Serena said.

Ash's confusion returned with a fierceness. What could she possibly be talking about?

"Ash… I'm in love with you," Serena said.

She looked into his eyes hoping for some kind of reciprocation.

"You sure about that Serena? Love is a powerful emotion," Ash said.

"I've never been more sure of anything," Serena said. "I always have some doubts for every decision I make, but this is one I can't see myself regretting."

Ash smiled warmly. He pulled her into a tight embrace, which she returned. She looked at Ash in the eyes and felt gravitated toward them. Soon, they were mere centimeters apart, their lips barely making contact.

 _"Just do it Serena! Make the first move!"_ she thought to herself.

She closed her eyes and pressed her lips against his. She felt Ash mirror the motion in her lips, causing her cheeks to turn bright red.

Ash put his hands on her hips, pulling her close, while Serena wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. Ash pressed his tongue up against her lips, as if asking to gain entrance, to which she happily agreed.

Their tongues danced with each other, only retreating to allow air into their lungs. Ash bit Serena's lip, causing her to moan lightly. Heleaned forward, pressing Serena's back to the wall. Heremoved his lips from hers and started kissing

down her neck.

Serena started digging her nails into Ash's back, both of them unaware of the damage she was causing. She began moaning into Ash's ear, causing the boy to stir up even more. She felt Ash reach for the waist of her pants and quickly grabbed his wrist.

"No…" was all she could manage before Ash pressed his lips against her's once more. Ash felt her grip loosen and dipped his hand into her pants. He could feel through her undergarments that she was already moist.

He pulled her panties to the side and felt her juices run from her folds on to his fingers. Serena gasped at the contact and her grip tightened once more.

Ash started kissing her neck again, once again forcing Serena to loosen her grip. He started running his middle finger between her moist lips, gasps and moans emitting from her mouth.

"Ash… Oh, Ash…" Serena said repeatedly.

Ash brushed his finger against the sensitive part of her nether regions, causing Serena to buck her hips. She felt her knees weaken and she would have fallen if Ash hadn't been there to support her. Ash removed his hand from her pants and laid her down  
/on the floor, her long, honey blonde hair scattered everywhere. He hovered over her and placed himself between her legs.

He kneeled down and grabbed the waist band of her pants again and slowly pulled them down. He looked up at her, making sure she was fine with what was happening. Serena made no objection, so he continued until her pants and panties were completely removed.

The steam from the shower made everything quite foggy, so he couldn't see too much; all he knew was that she had nothing on her lower half.

Ash began running his hands along her stomach under her shirt, forcing the fabric up her torso. Serena reached down and removed the shirt for him, which surprised him.

 _"She must want this as much as I do,"_ Ash thought.

Even through the steam, he could see that she had a perfectly slim and toned figure. He took off his own shirt, leaving the only piece of clothing separating the two being his pants.

Serena leaned forward and grabbed the waist band and slowly pulled it down to reveal his solid length.

 _"Well it's not as long as I remember it to be, but I don't think I can handle much anyway,"_ she thought to herself.

Ash leaned over her once more, aiming his shaft toward her womanhood. He looked into her eyes and could only see love in them.

"Do it Ash. I'm giving myself to you," she said.

"You sure Serena?" Ash asked.

She just grabbed his shaft and started prodding herself with it.

"You tell me," she said with a moan.

Ash smiled and took over. He started parting her lips with the tip, earning him some moans from the girl under him. He stuck the tip in, causing Serena to gasp loudly. She wrapped her arms around his back and started digging into it once more.

"Deeper…" Serena moaned. "Break me."

Ash started plunging deeper and deeper into her, feeling her walls tighten against his shaft.

"Is this pussy tight enough for you?" Serena said seductively.

Ash couldn't respond, he was feeling new levels of pleasure. Leaf was tight too, but she played with herself constantly. This lead Ash to believe this would be the first time anything has ever been in her.

Serena couldn't deal with the wait and pushed Ash's waist down on to hers, forcing him deep into her.

Serena held back the screams caused byher hymen being broken, some tears rolling out of her eyes. Ash started kissing her cheek to comfort her before slowly withdrawing from inside her.

"Keep going… It'll help me feel better," Serena said weakly.

Ash started pushing his shaft back in, once again feeling Serena's pussy tighten around it. He repeated this motion until Serena started relaxing and her moans became more pleasant-sounding.

"Faster… Deeper..." Serena moaned.

Ash started picking up the pace, forcing every inch of his dick into Serena. She couldn't hold back the moans any longer, she had to make noise.

"Oh fuck yeah, this feels so good!" Serena said as she moaned.

Ash covered her mouth with his hand, hoping that the shower's noise was enough to conceal her noise. He kept sending the honey blonde slow, deep strokes, causing her eyes to roll to the back of her head in pleasure. He felt his climax approaching and  
/opted to take the riskier route and speed up.

"Serena, I'm close," he grunted.

Serena couldn't respond, just accepting the pleasure she was being given.

"I'm pulling out," Ash said.

Serena shook her head and wrapped her legs around his waist to keep him in. He kept going despite the consequences that could arise. Ash started to feel her walls start contracting and her breathing become erratic; he knew she was close too.

 _"If I keep going, I'm probably gonna cum in her, but I don't wanna stop just before she finishes, that would be cruel, especially since it's her first time,"_ Ash thought.

He decide to press on a little longer, almost being unable to hold his seed back. Serena started bucking her hips and arching her back and grabbing at the hand that was covering her mouth as she began to climax. Ash slowed down as she did, feeling her  
/body begin to relax and the waves of pleasure ran through the girl under him.

He pulled out of her and looked upon the sight before him: a beautiful honey blonde beauty, covered in sweat, still shivering from the aftermath of her climax. She looked up at him beckoned him to her. He leaned over her once more and shared a deep kiss.  
/Ash pulled away for a little bit to look at the girl in her eyes.

"I love you Ash…" she whispered.

"I… love you too Serena," Ash said hesitantly.

He didn't want to not say it and hurt her feelings but he didn't want to say what he didn't mean either, creating a conflict in his head. His thoughts were stopped by a light giggle.

"No you don't, not yet at least. Just give me a chance to convince you okay?" Serena said.

He was so relieved that she was understanding. He leaned in and kissed her once more before helping the girl to her feet. She could barely keep herself up, so Ash had to help support her.

Serena felt some liquid running down her leg from her lady parts and touched some of it with her finger and bring it up to her face. When she took a look, she saw blood.

"Ash, I'm bleeding," Serena said.

"Probably from when your hymen broke," Ash said. "But then that means…"

He looked down at his johnson and saw it lightly covered in blood as well. Further investigation showed that some blood made its way to the floor too.

Serena giggled a bit before getting into the shower.

"Hurry up and clean that up so you can join me," Serena said.

Ash smiled and nodded and started cleaning up the mess they made.

 _"Wow… Two girls in one day. I guess Leaf is fine with this, she did tell Serena to go for it anyway, so she can't be mad at me,"_ Ash thought.

He finished cleaning and hopped into the shower with Serena. They barely shared any contact during the shower, only touching when they both had to get under the water. Not even a word was said.

Ash stepped out of the shower and began drying himself off, while Serena continued to bathe.

"Ash, what are we?" Serena asked.

Ash knew he was in hot water, one wrong word and everything was going to crash.

"What do you want us to be?" Ash said.

"You know what I want us to be," Serena said, a tad irritated.

"Heh, I just wanted to see what you'd say. You think you can put up with me?" Ash said.

Serena pulled the shower curtain to reveal her smiling face. "Yeah, I mean all of us have for awhile now."

"Well if you think you can, I guess we could give it a shot."

Serena's face lit up brighter than the sun. She hopped out of the shower and pulled him into a tight hug.

"You won't regret it, I promise," Serena said.

Ash returned the hug before pulling her off of him.

"Get back in the shower, you're still wet," Ash said with a laugh.

Serena just smiled and hopped back in. Ash got fully dressed but opted to wait for Serena to finish showering. He sat on the floor, pulled out his phone, and patiently waited.

She eventually emerged from the shower and began drying herself off. She didn't notice the raven haired boy sitting on the floor until she turned around.

"Oh, Ash, I didn't know you were still here," Serena said with a start.

"Yeah I decided to stick around," Ash said. "I had nothing better to do anyway."

Serena just smiled and went through her regular routine. She was carefully grooming her hair in the mirror when Ash got up and stood behind her. Serena smiled seeing her new boyfriend standing behind her, she found it comforting knowing that she belonged  
/to him.

Ash wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned on her shoulder.

"Come on Ash, get off me, I need to do my hair," Serena said, trying to brush the boy off her shoulder.

"Fine," Ash said as he planted a kiss on her cheek. "I'm gonna go hang out with everyone else okay?"

"Alright, have fun," she replied.

Ash opened the door and saw Red, Gary, and Pikachu huddled around the door. They were obviously trying to eavesdrop.

"Can I help you?" Ash said.

The three of them ran off as fast as they could down the stairs and out of sight. That left a very troubled looking Leaf, which Ash didn't initially see.

"You okay Leaf?" Ash said.

She didn't respond, only gestured for him to follow her into his room. Ash nodded in agreement before turning back to the girl behind him.

"Hey Serena, I'm gonna talk to Leaf real quick, okay?"

"Okay Ash, have fun," Serena said, not looking away from the mirror.

Ash walked out, closed the door behind him, and walked into his room. Leaf was already sitting on the bed and gestured for him to sit next to her.

"What's up Leaf? You look upset," Ash said.

He had a feeling he knew what was going to come up, but didn't jump to it right away.

"I guess Serena told you everything huh," she said. She looked visibly hurt.

"Yeah, she asked if we could go out," Ash said.

"And I know you said yes."

"And how would you know?" Ash had a curious look on his face.

"Just a hunch. I'm glad you're happy, I hope everything goes well in your relationship."

"Well I'm not happy if you're not happy, so tell me what's up."

"It's not to say that I'm jealous, because I'm really not, it's just that…"

"… That?" Ash had no clue where she was going with this.

"When you were a kid, did you ever lose something just after you got it?"

"Yeah…"

"That's how I feel right now."

Ash wasn't getting it. "I don't follow, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Just give it some thought," Leaf said, not wanting to explain.

Ash closed his eyes and dug through his brain. A toy she just got and lost? Well the only thing that she just got was… And then Serena…

"You're talking about me?" Ash said finally.

"Well to some extent. I don't mind that she has you, I'm not looking for a relationship right now. What I am looking for is-."

"A fuck buddy?" Ash said.

"When you put it like that you make it sound pretty bad," Leaf said with a pout.

Ash was stunned. He didn't know Leaf was capable of those actions, regardless of the fact that they shared a moment like that a few hours ago.

"So you were just planning on having sex with me?" Ash said.

"A little bit…" Leaf said, shame coursing through her words.

"Okay," Ash said. He had a neutral expression.

Leaf took a very confused one. "Okay? What does that mean?"

"It just means okay, nothing really behind it. I wouldn't have minded, but a heads up would have been nice."

"Well I just thought you wouldn't agree with me. I mean, you did tell me that we're too young for these things yesterday."

"So?"

Leaf was confused once more. "So? I didn't think you'd do it unless I came on to you!" She was getting slightly irritated.

"Well… I guess you're right on that one. But I think we're going to have to stop, I don't want to hurt Serena."

"Yeah, I know. That wouldn't be good," Leaf said with a defeated tone.

"Just know, I always got your back. Feel free to talk to me about anything," Ash said, a warm smile on his face.

"Thanks, that means a lot."

She pulled Ash into a friendly hug before looking into his eyes one last time.

"Can I have one last favor?" Leaf asked.

"Sure, what's up?"

"Can I have one last kiss?"

Ash pondered briefly. He felt like it was a trap but decided to go for it anyway.

"Sure."

He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her lips, which she returned. They were interlocked for a few seconds before Leaf gently pushed him away before smiling.

She raised her hand to about face level and quickly swung it, making contact with Ash's face.

"I thought you didn't want to hurt Serena. You gotta get past blatant traps like that Ashy boy," Leaf said before smiling and sticking out her tongue.

Leaf then got up and left, humming a soft tune.

"I knew it…" Ash grumbled to himself while rubbing his cheek.

Ash just laid back on his bed and checked his phone. 7:40, the clock said. 10 more minutes and then he's have to leave. Ash sighed and then got up from his bed.

He began to get dressed and made sure he looked as decent as possible with the least effort. Once he was satisfied, he walked downstairs to meet everyone sitting on the couch.

"Ready to go?" he said.

Everyone nodded and got up. Pikachu scurried across the floor and hopped up on to his best friends shoulder. Ash then gave the creature a short scratch on his head as they all started walking to the school.

"So Ashy boy, Serena here tells us she locked you down," Gary said with a smile.

"You told them?" Ash said.

"Yeah, I didn't think you would mind, sorry," Serena said, her cheeks turning pink.

"It's fine, I just wanted them to find out, that's all," Ash said as he grabbed her hand.

Serena smiled and gladly accepted.

"Dang Ashy, I didn't think that you'd ever find out about how she felt," Gary said.

"And he _still_ wouldn't have if I didn't tell Serena to tell him," Leaf said, mimicking Gary's smile.

"Shut up," Ash and Serena said in unison.

"Ash you really didn't know Serena had a crush on you? You must be more blind than a Zubat, and they don't even _have_ eyes bro," Gary said mockingly.

"Come on Gary, you aren't done yet?" Ash said.

He was used to getting roasted by Gary but he didn't like it when he brought up the obvious.

"Fine, you big baby. I'll just roast you on the battlefield!"

"Oh yeah?" Ash said competitively.

"Yeah!"

"We'll see about that." Ash then came up with an idea. "Last one to the field has to pay $5!"

Ash then let go of Serena's hand and ran forward, Pikachu jumping from his shoulder to Serena's.

"Get back here scum!" Gary said as he chased him down.

"Some things never change, huh?" Leaf said with a chuckle.

"Idiots…" Serena whispered under her breath.

"He's your idiot now," Leaf said, laughing a little louder than she intended.

Serena sighed and then smiled. "Unfortunately."

Red continued to keep the most neutral face throughout the entire exchange. A part of him wanted to take off after the other boys, but another part of him wanted him to remain disciplined, not wanting to show any sign of weakness.

Leaf kept tabs on him, knowing that he wasn't normally this inanimate. She knew something was troubling him but decided to bring it up later.

 _"I'll find out what's wrong Red. Just wait."_ Leaf thought.

The walk was pretty quiet, no conversation arising between the 3. Pikachu would squeak and greet other Pokémon that passed, but that was the most that came from anyone's mouth.

They finally reached the back of the school and saw the two friends, once again, laying on the floor.

"Well doesn't this look familiar?" Leaf said.

"As dumb as ever…" Serena said.

Ash had his arms extended out to the side while Gary had his up in the air.

"Gary why are your arms up?" Serena asked.

"Too much… useless blood… in my arms…" Gary said between breaths.

"Dumbass…" Ash managed to force out.

Gary let his arms free fall, allowing one of his forearms to drop right on Ash's throat.

He started coughing uncontrollably and gasping for air.

"Payback… Bitch…" Gary said.

The other three sat on the ground next to the panting boys and started having random conversations. It didn't last too long as Prof. Oak and Tracey came around the building to meet the group.

"Good morning children! I take it you're all ready?" Prof. Oak said.

Everyone nodded their head and got up off the ground.

"Good. This portion shouldn't be very long, so you'll get to go home early," Oak said. "Now let's get this started, shall we?"

Everyone spread out across the battlefield, putting equal distance between each competitor. Pikachu was the first to the field. He took an aggressive stance, ready for the day.

"You ready buddy? Let's show 'em what a real team looks like!" Ash said.

"Pika!" Pikachu cried as his cheeks sparked up.

"Looks like we got a walk in the park today. Go Wartortle!" Gary said.

Wartortle emerged and folded his arms, mimicking Gary's stance.

"If anyone's gonna win this, it's us! Come out Ivysaur!" Leaf said.

Ivysaur appeared and took an alert stance.

"Let's win this Braixen!" Serena said.

Braixed popped out, ready for an attack to be called.

Red said nothing and just tossed his ball into the air. Charmeleon appeared and had a cocky smile on his face.

"Looks like everyone's ready. You all know the rules, battle begin!" Tracey said.

"Let's put this in our favor Pikachu. Electric Terrain!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu began discharging massive amounts of electricity into the ground, causing it to spark occasionally.

"Sunny Day!" Red cried.

Charmeleon cried as loud as it could. The clouds began rolling away and the sun became brighter.

 _"Perfect,"_ Leaf thought. "Ivysaur, Solar Beam!"

Ivysaur took less than a few seconds to absorb energy because of Charmeleon's Sunny Day. It pointed it directly at Wartortle and unleashed it.

"Wartortle dodge it!" Gary yelled.

Wartortle jumped away, barely avoiding a direct hit.

"Okay Braixen! Use Thunder Wave on Wartortle!" Serena said.

 _"She knows Thunder Wave?!"_ everyone else thought.

Braixen pointed her stick at the downed Wartortle and released a pulse of energy to paralyze it.

"Dammit! Wartortle use Withdraw," Gary said. _"I'll use Refresh later, Wartortle can handle it for now."_

Wartortle retreated into its shell, raising its Defense.

"Thunderbolt on Braixen!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu gathered electricity and released it directly at Braixen.

"Braixen move!" Serena cried.

Braixen dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the boosted attack.

"Dragon Dance," Red said.

Energy started swirling around Charmeleon to raise its Speed and Attack. Red smirked, he knew what he was doing.

"Why the smile brother? Got something up your sleeve? Ivysaur, Toxic on Charmeleon!" Leaf said.

Ivysaur launched a ball of purple ooze, hitting Charmeleon in the chest, poison him on contact. Red's smile turned to a frown.

"Hypnosis on Pikachu!" Serena quickly said.

Braixen aimed her stick and released and eerie pulse at Pikachu.

"Pikachu dodge!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu jumped up and avoided the attack with ease.

 _"This might be risky. I just gotta hope Ash doesn't take advantage of it too much,"_ Gary thought. "Rain Dance!"

Wartortle cried as loud as it could. Clouds began to roll in and rain started pouring from the sky.

Ash smiled.

"That's ballsy Gary, I'll give you that. Pikachu, use Thunder on Charmeleon!"

Pikachu cried as a massive bolt of electricity came down and struck Charmeleon directly. Charmeleon endured the hit, being reduced to one knee. Red's expression hardened, he knew Charmeleon was badly hurt from both the poison and that boosted Thunder.  
/He had to be quick or he'd lose.

"Dragon Dance again!" Red yelled.

Charmeleon began glowing again, boosting his Attack and Speed once more.

Everyone was shocked that he'd do it again. They thought he'd start being aggressive.

"Ivysaur, use Venoshock on Charmeleon!" Leaf said.

Ivysaur began launching pellets of gunk at Charmeleon. If it landed, Charmeleon was done.

"Dodge it," Red said.

With the double speed boost, Charmeleon swiftly dodged it the pellets despite the poisoning he was receiving.

 _"Now's my chance!"_ Serena thought. "Braixen, Foul Play on Charmeleon!"

Braixen cloaked herself in a black aura and charged Charmeleon, doing an incredible amount of damage. However, Charmeleon doesn't go down just yet.

"Geez Red, I didn't know Charmeleon could take that many hits. I guess you were going easy on me after all," Serena said.

Red just smiled, satisfied that Charmeleon was holding up so well.

"He won't be standing after this one. Surf!" Gary yelled.

Wartortle launched a massive wave that swept everyone on the field. Charmeleon and Braixen took the most damage, while Ivysaur and Pikachu saw it as a mild inconvenience.

Gary smirked, thinking that he had taken out two with one attack. He was soon proven wrong when he saw both Braixen and Charmeleon still standing.

"But how?! They should be done for when it's raining!" Gary cried.

"Don't worry, I'll clean this up. Pikachu, Thunder, one more time!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu summoned another massive bolt of electricity from the clouds. It struck no one in particular, but because everyone was covered in water from the Surf plus the rain, it struck everyone.

Charmeleon couldn't handle that many hits and finally went down. Wartortle also went down to the super effective attack.

"Charmeleon and Wartortle are unable to battle! Trainers, return your Pokemon," Tracey said.

Both Gary and Red returned their downed Pokemon and took a few steps back.

"You did great Charmeleon, I shouldn't have stalled for so long," Red said to his Pokeball.

"We'll get them next time Wartortle. They won't be so lucky again," Gary said, his smile never leaving his face.

"Looks like it's just us now," Ash said.

"Not for long. Ivysaur, use Sleep Powder on Pikachu," Leaf commanded.

Ivysaur shot out a dense cloud of powder at Pikachu, effectively surrounding the tiny mouse.

"Pikachu, hold your breath!" Ash commanded.

Pikachu covered his nose and mouth as much as possible, but it seemed futile as he started to feel the drowsiness hit him. It wasn't long after that he fell asleep.

"Braixen, use Hypnosis on Ivysaur!" Serena yelled.

Braixen pulled her stick once again and aimed it at Ivysaur, launching a wave of psychic energy that put the remaining competitor to sleep.

"Pikachu, wake up!" Ash pleaded.

"You too Ivysaur!" Leaf said.

"Overheat," Serena said calmly.

Braixen gathered as much energy as possible into herself and unleashed it, sending waves of fire in all directions. The attack hit both Ivysaur and Pikachu, knocking them both out.

"Pikachu and Ivysaur are unable to battle, Serena and Braixen are the victor!" Tracey yelled.

Braixen ran up and hugged her trainer, the both of them sharing the victory. The others in the group approached the pair and offered words of praise.

"Congrats Serena, that was a great battle," Gary said. "It was kinda bullshit that you and Red didn't get out by that boosted Surf but it won't happen again."

"That was pretty crazy, Charmeleon did a hell of a job withstanding all of that," Red said.

"Wow Red, finally contributing to the conversation I see," Leaf said mockingly.

"Oh shut it lil sis," Red said.

"That's big sis to you and you can't tell me what to do, you aren't Mom," Leaf said.

Red grabbed her and spun her around, getting her quite dizzy.

"Yeah, yeah, I love you too, idiot, now let me go!" Leaf cried.

Ash was still holding Pikachu, who was resting from the last battle.

"Pikachu was pulling some crazy moves there Ash, when did he learn all of those?" Red said.

"Crazy? Pikachu didn't even get to use his best moves!" Ash said. "If Leaf hadn't gone the cheap way and use Sleep Powder, we would have won it."

"Cheap? It was a strategy, dummy. I knew neither of us could've taken Pikachu head on with Electric Terrain _and_ Rain Dance active, so I had to clip your wings," Leaf said.

"I'm glad we cut Red short though. With both of those boosting moves, anything would've taken us down," Gary said.

"I had a feeling you guys were ganging up on me," Red said.

"Well it's obvious that you're the strongest, we didn't have to confide with each other to know to take you down first," Leaf said.

"Losers…"

That sent a laugh through everyone, excluding Red, who was still mildly upset.

"Don't worry about it man, if you had to take us one on one, I'm sure you would've beaten everyone but me," Ash said with a cocky smile.

Everyone murmured different responses, all equivalent to "no".

This put a smile on Red's face. It was refreshing to the group to finally see Red being active again.

Just then, Tracey, Oak, Korrina, and Lucario came up and approached the group.

"Congratulations Ms. Gabena. You and Braixen fought excellently," Oak said.

"Thank you Professor Oak, I had a great time," Serena responded.

"Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you all passed! I think you all have great potential in the battling field that becoming Champion is just a step away," Oak said confidently.

This caused Ash, Gary, and Red's eyes to light up. It had always been their dream to become region champions and have regular exhibitions with each other. This reignited their childhood dreams and gave them the drive to keep going.

"You hear that boys… Champions…" Ash said.

"We'll get there. And when we do, my region's gonna be better than both of you," Gary said cockily.

"We'll see about that Gary," Red said competitively.

"They really do dream big don't they," Serena said so that only Leaf could hear her.

"Yeah, it's almost inspiring sometimes. Growing up with them especially. It always had me wonder what I want to do," Leaf said.

"Well I guess that makes two of us. I'm still not sure what I'm gonna do either," Serena said.

"Okay, enough chitter chatter, time for the bad news," interrupted Oak. "Korrina has to go back to Kalos in a few hours because of an emergency, so that means that you won't be able to take the last part of the test."

"And that's… bad news?" Ash said.

"That sounds like great news to me," Gary said.

"It's not great news, because that means that your grades will only be based on the two parts that you've taken, meaning a higher rate of failure," Oak said irritatedly.

"But if we all passed both parts, how do we fail?" Red said.

"…Go back to being silent boy," Oak said harshly.

"I told you they weren't dumb professor," Tracey said with a giggle.

"Well then yes, you're right. You all do pass," Oak said.

Cheers were had all around. Everyone started high fiving and hugging, it was a genuinely friendly sight.

"But I do have a proposition for you all," Oak said.

This intrigued everyone.

"What would you say to giving up your summer to graduate early?" Oak said.

"How early?" Gary said.

"By the end of the summer, you all would have your diplomas and can journey wherever you'd like," Oak said.

Everyone looked at each other.

"What do you guys think?" Ash said.

Everyone couldn't agree on a final answer, each person bringing up valid points that changed everyone's mind.

"You don't have to give an answer now. It's currently about 9:30 AM. I'll give you 24 hours to give me an answer," Oak said.

"Deal," Ash said.

"Well you're all free to go, have a wonderful day," Oak said.

The three older people turned around and started walking back to the school. The group walked in the opposite direction, opting to cut through the forest behind the school to get back to Ash's house faster.

Lucario, however, didn't move an inch.

He kept staring at Serena.

He turned around and tapped Korrina on the shoulder.

"What's up Lucario?" Korrina asked.

The sudden words caused the other two to turn around in curiosity. Lucario pointed to himself and then to Serena.

"I don't get it, what are you trying to say?" Korrina said.

"I think he wants to go with Serena," Oak said with a smile.

Lucario began furiously nodding his head.

"You sure about his? I don't mind, but your father might be pissed," Korrina said.

Lucario thought about it for a second before waving his hands around, showing that he didn't care.

"Okay, if you say so," Korrina said. "Hey Serena!"

The sudden call caused everyone to turn around. Serena now had Pikachu in her arms, gently carrying the tiny mouse who was still asleep.

"Yeah?" Serena asked confused.

Korrina handed Lucario his Pokeball and allowed him to walk to his new trainer.

"Take care of yourself, okay?" Korrina said.

Lucario nodded his head and gave Korrina a tight hug. With that, he ran to his new trainer, Pokeball in hand.

He approached the honey blonde and looked at her in her eyes.

"What's up Lucario?" Serena asked.

He held out his hand and revealed a Pokeball. This caused surprise to run through Serena's eyes.

"You wanna come with me?" Serena said finally.

Lucario smiled and nodded.

"I'd be glad to have you on the team," Serena said with a smile.

She took the ball from his hand and attached it to the magnetic belt on her waist. She allowed Lucario to stay out of his ball to get familiar with the group.

"That's no fair Serena, you already got a head start on us," Ash said.

"Yeah, you already have a gym leader's personally trained Pokemon, that's not cool," Gary said.

"Stop complaining you babies, it's not like she's gonna battle us anytime soon," Leaf said.

"Yeah, besides, I have no battle experience with Lucario, so it wouldn't exactly be easy," Serena said.

"Still unfair…" Ash grumbled. "You guys wanna just sleep over tonight? We're gonna have to discuss this proposition that Oak gave us and you guys are probably gonna end up breaking in anyway."

"Might as well. I guess we should go and get new clothes from our houses then," Red suggested.

No one else had any objections.

"Okay, well meet at my house in an hour, then we can go get lunch," Ash said.

They all walked a little further through the forest before reaching a small park. Here, Serena handed Pikachu back to Ash and walked with Gary and her Pokemon back to Oak's lab, Red and Leaf went in the other direction, and Ash continued forward.

Ash didn't have any thoughts on the way home this time, he was observing the nature around him. It made him feel relaxed.

Before he knew it, he was in his back yard. He opened the door and saw his mother sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Hello dear, how did your test go?" his mother said.

"It went well, I think. Me and Pikachu didn't win, but Oak said we all passed," Ash said.

"Well that's all that matters," she said.

"By the way, everyone is sleeping over tonight, just so you don't get paranoid hearing a bunch of people later on," Ash said.

"Okay, that's fine, but I don't think there's enough beds for everyone," she said. "You know how I feel about people sleeping on my good couch."

Delia had a specific couch that she watched TV on. If it was too warm, she knew that someone had been on it for too long and would usually scold Ash for it.

"Yeah I know. Well Leaf and Red can sleep on the other couches and Serena and Gary can sleep in my room," Ash suggested.

"Why don't you put the girls together? I'm sure they'd like that more," Delia said.

"I think Serena's gonna want to stay with me all the time. We started going out this morning," Ash revealed.

Delia turned around in her seat to look at her son. "Going out? As in dating?"

Ash knew he messed up.

"…yeah…"

"OOOOOOOHHHH I knew it was going to happen! I just didn't expect it to happen so soon!" Delia got up from the couch and started hugging the boy. "Oh you're going up so fast! She's so pretty, and she knows how to cook!"

"Okay mom, I get it," Ash said as he was being smothered.

"Leaf would've been a great option too, but I knew you thought of her as a sister so it would've been weird."

This caused Ash to reevaluate his relationship with Leaf, especially the events from this morning. He did think of Leaf as a sister. So that meant…

He had _sex_ with his **_sister_**.

The thought brought a nauseous feeling to Ash's stomach.

"Mom okay!" With that he pushed his mother off him.

"I'm sorry dear, I just got a little excited," Delia said with a smile.

"Yeah, okay mom," Ash said.

He carried is sleepy partner into his room and placed him on the top bunk before getting into the bottom one. He checked the time on his phone, 9:50.

 _"Well I guess I could take a quick nap,"_ Ash thought. He then closed his eyes and began drifting off to sleep.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey guys, I know this update is super late. I know it said that I updated the story last night, but I did it on accident, the chapter wasn't done yet so I had to pull it from the site and continue working on it. The reason this chapter was late is because classes started and I got carried away, plus I started playing more PC games and watching a new anime (Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Kaleid Prisma Illya, both great watches but very different genres) so that's been eating up a bunch of my time. Another reason this chapter was late was because I didn't like it. I had to rewrite it 3 times because I didn't feel like it advanced the plot in any way. With this revision, it still doesn't as much as I wanted to, but it does show some new character traits that I want to bring up. In the next chapter, there will be a time skip. Some of you may like where it leads to, others may not, just know I'm doing it for a purpose. I did add the lemon in the middle, it wasn't originally there, not for fan service, but to show how much Serena is willing to give up for Ash. It does play a big role later on. I don't think the next chapter will take as long to come out, but if I see interest, I definitely will prioritize this story. So until next time, please review, like, favorite it, all the things. See ya!**

 **A/N 2: How did I do on the lemon guys? I plan for this chapter to be out on Friday night, so if I get enough PMs about it (don't put a review just on the lemon lol, do review though),I'll probably add one.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Day Z

It's close to the end of August. The group decided to go with Oak's proposition and take classes during the summer. It was rough, but they all pulled through and graduated in the end. Oak had a special graduation ceremony for them, since they were the first to graduate under his roof. That was a week ago. Today, the group starts their journeys.

However, they will be traveling separately.

Ash wanted to go through Kanto, being his home region he thought it was just the way it should be. Leaf wanted to go with Ash, but her mother had instructed her to stay with Red, who was traveling to Hoenn.

Gary was given a special assignment from Professor Oak to travel to Sinnoh and work under Professor Rowan to assist in his research.

And that left Serena. Serena desperately wanted to travel with her boyfriend. However, her mother had come to Kanto for the graduation and requested that she returned to Kalos with her. Serena couldn't deny her mother's request, so she was forced to travel back to Kalos with no real explanation.

Over the course of 3 months, Ash and Serena had gotten very close. Serena had definitely convinced him that she loved him and he could barely function correctly without her. He had contemplated traveling with her to Kalos, but couldn't because he couldn't afford the ticket.

 _"Today is going to be the worst day ever,"_ Ash thought to himself. _"I never thought this day would come, the day that…"_

Tears began rolling out of his eyes. He laid his arm over his eyes to conceal the tears.

It was already about 4 in the morning, his thoughts preventing him from sleeping.

He then heard a knock on his window.

He quickly wiped his tears, got up from the bottom bunk of his bed and saw his beautiful girlfriend on the other side of the glass. He opened the window and let her in.

She was only wearing a short pants and a tank top; clearly she couldn't sleep either and decided to come by.

"Hey Serena, what brings you here at this time?" Ash said.

"You know why I'm here, I'm here for you," she said.

Ash climbed back in bed and patted the space next to him for her to sit down. Once she sat, she decided to just lay in the bed next to him. Ash put his arms around her waist and pulled her close, tangling their legs in the process.

Serena rested her head under Ash's chin, getting as close as she could to her boyfriend. Ash then give her a short kiss on the top of her head.

"You know I love you right?" Ash said.

Serena just nodded.

"You know I'm gonna miss you right?" Ash said.

He felt the honey blonde tense up and then heard her start whimpering. He suddenly felt his chest start getting wet. She was crying.

"Hey now, don't cry baby girl, everything is alright," Ash said soothingly.

He was rubbing her back holding her tight. He wished he never had to let her go. The thought of it brought tears his own eyes.

"Don't worry babe, we'll meet up soon okay? And then we can do all those things that you planned for us," Ash said.

He was really fighting back tears now. He just leaned his head on Serena's and let the tears flow. He had his eyes shut tightly and a troubled expression on his face. She just tilted her head up and gave him a peck on the lips.

His face instantly eased up and he slowly opened his eyes. Serena was looking at him all teary eyed, but smiling. Ash leaned in and gave her a proper kiss, letting their lips interact like they had many times in the past.

Ash pulled her in and held her tight. Serena nestled against his chest and closed her eyes. Ash quickly planted a kiss on her forehead and closed his eyes. Not long after, the pair fell asleep.

Ash's alarm woke him up several hours later. He looked at the time and sighed loudly. It was 8AM now. Serena was still fast asleep, lightly snoring as she laid in his arms. He really didn't want to wake her up, but he knew it had to be done.

"Serena. Serena, wake up, we gotta go back to the lab to get your stuff," Ash whispered.

Her eyes fluttered open to reveal a beautiful shade of sky blue. Ash just stared at them for a few seconds, auburn meeting sky blue. He gently placed another kiss on her forehead.

"Come on princess, get up, we gotta go," Ash said.

Serena just groaned and buried her face into his chest once again.

"I know you don't wanna go, but we have to. We'll meet up again, I promise," Ash said as he squeezed her tight.

"Ugh, fine," Serena said.

She finally got up from the bed and left to use the bathroom. Ash got up after her and looked around his room. He already packed the essentials last night and just had to get dressed. He soon stripped out of his sleepwear and put on a fresh set of clothes **(A/N: his Kanto outfit)**.

He took one last look around his room and grabbed his characteristic hat and left his room. He saw Serena grooming her hair in the bathroom and walked in.

"Looking as stunning as usual," Ash said as he put his arms around her waist.

" _*sigh*_ Let's just get this over with," she said, not even acknowledging him.

She walked down the stairs and waited by the front door. Ash followed shortly after and spotted Pikachu sitting on the dining table. Pikachu looked up and ran up to his partner, greeting with a gentle cheek rub as he always did.

Serena watched the whole thing and put a little smile on.

 _"I'm really going to miss them,"_ Serena thought.

Pikachu noticed her smile fall and hopped on to her shoulder.

"Pika pi?" he said, clearly knowing something was wrong.

"It's nothing Pikachu, don't worry about it," she said as she scratched the small creature. "Come on Ash, let's go."

Serena walked out the door, barely waiting for him to leave. Ash sighed and walked out the door, closing it behind him. The walk to Oak's lab was extremely silent. Pikachu didn't like it, so he tried to interact with Serena, but he was always distracted by the constant petting that he was given.

It didn't take long to reach the front door of the lab. The three could hear two voices on the other side of the door, obviously sharing a generally happy conversation due to the amount of laughter that was going on. Serena sighed and then opened the door.

As soon as she opened the door, both Prof. Oak's and Grace's eyes turned to the door.

"Oh there you are Serena, I've been wondering when you'd show up. I had a feeling you'd end up by Ash's when you weren't in your bed this morning," Grace said warmly.

"Yeah…" Serena just walked off in the direction of the room that she was staying in.

Grace sighed. She saw Ash start to follow her to the room, but quickly stopped him.

"Ash, do you have a minute?" Grace asked.

"Yeah, anything for you Ms. Gabena," Ash replied.

"I know that you and Serena have been together for only a short time, but it's obvious that the bond between you two is very strong," Grace said. "I'd just like for you to keep her as happy as long as possible. I know it's going to be difficult, but please, for me."

"You didn't even have to ask, I'm already on it," Ash said with a smile.

"Thank you Ash, you're very sweet," Grace said, mimicking the smile.

Serena came out in her usual clothes a few minutes after, Pikachu still perked on her shoulder. She still had an upset expression on her face. She just sat on the couch and pulled out her phone.

Pikachu sighed and hopped off her shoulder, heading over to her partner a good distance away.

"How is she buddy?" Ash asked.

"Pika pi…" he responded.

"Yeah, I didn't think so," Ash said.

He walked over and sat next to her on the couch while Pikachu watched from a distance. As expected, she didn't acknowledge him at all. Ash just laid on her lap and looked up at her. She did her best to avoid his eyes but ended up failing.

She looked down at her boyfriend. She had a smile, but it was a sad smile. Ash couldn't bear to see her that way, so he wrapped his arms around her and mashed his face into her stomach. Serena smiled some more and started running her fingers in the boy's hair, finally putting away her phone..

"You suck you know that?" Serena said.

Ash shook his head, not moving himself from her stomach.

"Ugh. I can never stay upset around you huh," Serena said.

Ash shook his head again.

"Asshole," Serena said with a giggle.

Ash then bit her in her stomach, causing her to jump.

"Ow! Ash!" she yelled.

She then hit the boy on his head. He kept his arms around the girl but significantly loosened them.

"Kiss it," Serena demanded.

Ash shook his head.

"I'm gonna hit you again if you don't."

Grace and Oak walked in a few minutes before, but didn't interrupt the couple's moment.

"They look so cute together. It's like they were meant to be," Grace said.

"I agree. There was always something about Ash that drew her in. I noticed it on the first day they started class 5 years ago," Oak replied.

"I just hope Serena understands why I'm doing this," Grace said sadly. "It really breaks my heart to separate them, but this is how it need to be."

"Care to explain?"

"Well you see…"

Ash and Serena were now play fighting. Ash never gave into Serena's demands so she kept her word and struck him. This lead to Ash retaliating, and one thing lead to another, and they ended up on the floor.

Serena pinned Ash to the floor, making sure he couldn't get up.

"You're gonna do what I say now?" Serena said with a giggle.

"Never!" Ash cried.

He desperately tried to squirm his way free, but Serena proved a worthy adversary.

"Okay fine, what do you want?" Ash said wth a pout.

"Give me a kiss," Serena said.

"Eww no, you have cooties," Ash said as he stuck out his tongue.

"Fine, I'll just kiss you myself," Serena said.

She leaned forward and placed her lips on Ash's. Ash didn't hesitate and immediately quit his struggle to return the kiss.

"I thought you didn't want to kiss me," Serena said.

"I'm a big boy, I can take a few hits," Ash said with a smile.

She leaned in and planted one last kiss before getting off him. She held a hand out to help him up, which he gladly accepted. The couple walked up to the adults, hand in hand.

"Okay mom, let's get this over with before I change my mind," Serena said.

She didn't know she was interrupting their conversation, but Grace didn't seem to mind.

"I'll explain the rest later," Grace said to Oak. "Okay then kids, let's get going then."

Ash grabbed Serena's bags and helped carry them out of the lab. He took them to Grace's rental car and loaded them into the trunk.

"Okay, I think we're all set!" Grace said. "Everyone ready to leave?"

"Hold on, where's Pikachu?" Ash asked.

Pikachu scurried out the door and ran down to meet his best friend.

"There you are, what have you been up to?" Ash asked.

Pikachu didn't respond to him but gave Oak a mischievous look instead. Needless to say, Oak was quite frightened.

"Okay Professor, we'll be on our way," Grace said.

"Alright, I hope to see you again soon. It was a pleasure having your daughter stay with us as long as she did," Oak said.

"Thank you for everything Professor Oak," said the couple.

"The pleasure was mine. Remember to visit Ash, we're not too far from you at all," Oak said.

"Of course not. Mom is already expecting me home after my first gym badge!" Ash said cheerfully.

"Very good. Goodbye now!" Oak said.

The two teenagers got into the backseat, while Grace got in the driver's.

The drive to Vermilion City was quiet, not an awkward quiet, but a peaceful one. Of course, there was some fear in the air, but no one did anything to address it.

Once they reached the port, Grace pulled into the rental car lot.

"Okay kids, go and have fun, I'll go make sure everything's checked in," she said.

The teens nodded and left the lot to see the port. It didn't take them long to find the rest of the group. In fact, everyone but Ash was going on the same boat.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Ash said.

"All good Ashy boy, but I don't think I can say the same about you," Gary said.

"Eh, I'm just trying not to think about it," he replied.

"Hey Serena," Leaf said as she embraced her friend.

"Why are you hugging me now? We'll still see each other for a few days," Serena said with a fake smile.

Leaf saw right through it and frowned at her.

Serena sighed. "Yeah I know. It's gonna be pretty rough."

Leaf hugged her again. "Don't worry about it, we'll be here for you as long as we have to."

"Come on, let's stop sulking and go for a walk," Gary said.

The 5 then started walking down the pier, looking for the ship they were going to be on.

"What's the name of the ship?" Ash asked.

"The S.S. Anne. It's supposed to be arriving soon," Leaf said.

"Wait, as in the luxury cruise liner?" Ash said.

"Yeah, mom has tons of extra cash from all her races so she didn't mind throwing some our way," Serena said.

"Lucky…" Ash said under his breath.

 ** _On the S.S. Anne_**

A familiar honey blonde was standing at the bow, leaning on the railing. The wind swept her hair as it breezed through forcefully.

"Good morning passengers, we are close to our final stop. Please make sure you have your bags in order and all your belongings are put away," a voice said over the intercom.

 _"Hmm we're almost there,"_ she thought.

 ** _On the Pier_**

"Hey look, the ship's on the horizon," Ash pointed out.

His statement brought a few bittersweet comments from the rest of the group. He didn't hear them so he couldn't clarify.

They all stood at the water's edge as the ship closed in. The ship covered a great distance in such a short amount of time that it surprised the group.

As it docked, Serena thought she saw a pink hat sat on top of a head of honey blonde hair close to the bow.

 _"No, it couldn't be, that wouldn't make any sense,"_ she said to herself.

Grace approached the group, tickets in hand.

"Okay! I have everyone's tickets. Here you go Serena, here's yours Gary, and the last two are for the twins," she said as she handed out tickets.

"Mom!" the group heard.

Grace turned quickly to see the source of the sound.

 _"No…"_ Serena thought.

"There you are honey, I was wondering when you'd arrive," Grace said. "Kids, meet Serena's sister, Yvonne."

Grace stepped to the side to reveal a girl that looked _identical_ to Serena in every way possible. This confused everyone, aside from Serena, who was confused for a different reason.

"Y! What are you doing here?!" Serena asked, nearly yelling.

"Well it's good to see you too sis. Introduce me to your friends," Y said, completely ignoring the question.

Pikachu jumped from Ash's shoulder to Y's and started rubbing his cheek against hers.

"Well hello there cutie," Y said as she scratched the yellow mouse.

"That's Pikachu. Ash is the one with black hair, Leaf is the girl, Red is the other one with the hat, and Gary is the idiot. Now why are you here?!" Serena said.

"Why is 'idiot' my defining character?" Gary said.

Ash just chuckled and shrugged.

"Well if you'd really like to know, I'm gonna start traveling through Kanto," Y said. "I'm here to challenge the flying type gym."

"Just the flying type gym?" Red asked.

"And the Elite Four if they specialize in flying types," Y said.

"Well I hate to break it to you, but Kanto has neither of those things," Ash said with a chuckle.

"What do you mean?! I've already challenged all of the other flying type gym leaders in every region, there _has_ to be one here," Y said, irritation in her voice.

"You've only challenged flying gym leaders…" Gary said.

"Yes! What is so hard to understand about that?! I'm going to be the BEST sky trainer, so I have to challenge them all!" Y said.

"Okay, well where's next on your list?" Leaf said.

"Well since there's none here, I guess I'll go to Sinnoh to challenge their flying type gym," Y said irritatedly.

"Negative. No flying gym there either," Gary said.

"Whaaaaattttttt," Y said. "Well I guess I'll go to the one in Kalos then."

"You're from Kalos, Y, you should know there isn't a flying gym there," Serena said, folding her arms.

"… I have no purpose in life…" Y said.

She dropped to the floor and hung her head in shame. Pikachu hopped off her and started trying to comfort the girl.

"Well that got really dark," Ash whispered to Gary.

"Yeah, she's fucking insane bro. I'm glad we got Serena instead of her," Gary whispered back.

"Ugh, get up Y," Serena said as she pulled her sister off the floor. "Just come home with us, I'm sure there's something for you there."

"No," Y said.

"What do you mean no? Mom, aren't you gonna say anything about this?" Serena said.

"Well I don't think they have enough space to take Y. If anything, she's gonna have to stay in Kanto for another 2 weeks since they don't have an airport," Grace said.

"So where will she stay?" Serena said.

At that, everyone looked at Ash.

"Why is everyone looking at me? There's literally 3 other people you could look at," Ash said.

"Yeah but you're the only one staying in Kanto," Leaf said.

"But I'm going to start my adventure," Ash said.

"I'll just come with you," Y said.

" _What?!_ " Serena and Ash said simultaneously.

"I think it's a great idea! We can't just drop her off at anyone's house and we don't want to delay your journey," Grace said.

"Yeah, and I can check out all the flying types here," Y said.

"Well… I guess it wouldn't hurt," Ash said.

"Hey Ash, can I talk to you for a second?" Serena said.

Without waiting for an answer, she pulled him to the side.

"What the _fuck_ are you doing?!" Serena said, barely above a whisper.

"I just can't leave her here! That would be like leaving you here," Ash said.

"I wish they'd leave me here. **_Sigh_** Okay, I guess," she said. "BUT. If you try anything, I'm chopping your balls off."

She didn't even look for his reaction, she just turned around and walked back. Ash gripped his cherries in fear.

 _"It can't be that hard staying faithful. I mean, it's not like I'm attracted to Y,"_ he thought.

He then took a good look at the sisters as they stood next to each other. He saw no discernible features on ether of them. He didn't even know which one was which.

 _"I'm fucked,"_ he thought as he gripped them a little tighter.

He walked back and swallowed the lump in his throat.

"So what do you say Ash, will you let me travel with you?" Y asked.

Pikachu was now sitting on her shoulder again, giving Ash a mischievous look.

"Yeah, it shouldn't be too difficult. I'm just challenging gyms after all," Ash said, ignoring Pikachu's look.

"Great! I'll go get my things," Y said as she ran off, taking Pikachu with her.

"I guess I should go with her," Grace said, following her daughter.

As soon as Grace was out of earshot, Gary started laughing uncontrollably.

"Dude, you are _so_ fucked! I couldn't even tell the difference!" Gary said as he continued laughing.

This made Serena visibly upset. Ash quickly put his arm around her to lighten the mood.

"Don't worry about it, I love Serena for her personality, something Yvonne doesn't have," Ash said as he kissed her on the cheek.

This made her less upset, now being in a neutral looking mood. Gary finished his bout of laughter and wiped a few tears from his eyes.

"You can't lie though, it was like they put a mirror right next to Serena," Gary said.

"Honestly, I thought Serena was exaggerating when she said they looked exactly alike," Ash said.

"Well… Have fun Ash," Red said with a mischievous smile.

Ash was about to give Red a piece of his mind but was interrupted by Y making another appearance.

"What were you guys talking about?" she asked.

Pikachu jumped back on to Ash's shoulder, briefly greeting him with a little cheek rub.

"Nothing…" Ash said.

She was going to press it, but decided to not to.

"So what's the plan?" Y asked.

"Well we leave in about 3 hours, we should get some lunch and catch up," Serena said.

"That sounds great! I'm starving," Y responded.

Not even having a clue where she was going, Y set off in one direction, leaving the others to follow.

"This is going to be a nightmare…" Ash said.

The group silently followed Y. They had no problem waiting for food because they found it entertaining that Y was searching in the wrong part of the pier.

After a solid half an hour of running around, Y finally wandered into a fast food joint that didn't look too bad. They all ordered a burger and fries and sat down at a table.

Ash ordered a second serving of fries for Pikachu, who hopped on to another table and smothered the entire thing in ketchup. Ash saw the mess he was making and sighed to himself.

"So how've you been baby sis? I haven't seen you in 5 years," Y said as she bit into her hamburger.

"I told you to stop calling me that!" Serena said. "I'm only 2 minutes younger!"

"Two minutes is still younger baby sis," Y said.

"Hear that _baby bro_?" Leaf teased.

Red just rolled his eyes and bit into his hamburger.

"Come on Serena, I'm just trying to reunite with my sister," Yvonne said. "It's been 5 whole years, I've missed you."

Y did frequently text Serena but Serena always found it annoying so she usually ignored them. This made her feel a tad bit guilty of the way she was treating her sister.

"I'm sorry Y, I'm just a little tense about leaving," Serena said.

"It's alright, I know how you feel. So tell me about your time here in Kanto," Y said.

"Well there's not much to say. We didn't really leave Pallet too often, only to go to the mall in Celadon or to other places with Professor Oak for research," Serena said. "Other than that, it was just hanging out and stuff."

"Sounds pretty boring," Y said.

"A little bit, but those two goofballs always kept us on our toes," Serena said as she pointed at Ash and Gary.

Ash and Gary were trying to see who could stuff the most fries in their mouth. Y didn't even need to turn around to know that they were doing something dumb.

"Meet any cute boys?" Y said.

This brought a blush to her cheeks which Y immediately noticed.

"Ooooh who is he? What's his name?" Y said.

"Well… He's right next to you," Serena said shyly.

She turned to the two boys, who both smiled at her with food stuffed in her mouth.

"… You're joking right?" Y said.

Gary then slapped Ash with a great amount of force, spraying chewed food on everyone else.

"*sigh* Sometimes I wish I was…" Serena whispered.

"What was that Serena?" Ash said after he cleaned himself off.

"Nothing!" she quickly said.

After everyone cleaned off Ash's food blast, the conversation continued.

"So Y, tell us about your adventures," Serena said.

"It's been nothing special really. Go to the region, shop, battle the gym leader, then go home," Y said.

"That's all you've been doing for 5 years?" Serena said, a little disappointed at the low level of entertainment the conversation had.

"Of course I graduated from Sky Trainer School first. I was starting my second year when you left so I spent 3 years in school, then the last 2 traveling," Y said.

"Well that's lame," Serena responded boredly. "Did _you_ find anyone?"

"Hmm… I wouldn't say 'found' someone. Let's just say I found a little playmate," Y said seductively.

Ash, Red, and Gary all picked up on what she was saying and nearly choked on their food simultaneously. The three were eyeing each other down, not having a clue as to why she just revealed that.

Y was very amused at what she caused. The guys were all baffled and the girls were extremely confused.

"What do you mean by that?" Leaf asked.

Y turned to Ash. "Don't worry about it," she said, sending a wink his way.

The three boys all pulled out their phone simultaneously and began typing away. All the girls were confused this time.

"What are they doing?" Serena whispered to Leaf.

Leaf just shrugged.

Ash, Red, and Gary had a group chat that they used frequently to talk about random guy stuff that they couldn't say aloud or just share stories or funny pictures.

 ** _Gary:_** _BROOOO ur soooo fukt lmaooo_

 ** _Ash:_** _Wat do I do? I'm extra fucked ;-;_

 ** _Red:_** _You gotta ditch her bro lol_

 ** _Ash:_** _I cant do that red Serena wud kill me_

 ** _Red:_** _Just leave her at a random center. Nurse Joy will take care of her._

 ** _Gary:_** _yeah fuk taht bring Y with you bro I think itll be fun ;)_

 ** _Ash:_** _Gary stfu this is serious_

The girls just watched as they typed away, making odd facial expressions and hand gestures as they did.

Leaf tried to peek at Red's phone, but he quickly caught wind of her actions and pulled it out of sight.

"Did you see anything?" Serena whispered.

"Not really. They're in a group chat I think. All I saw was 'Gaiboiz' across the top," Leaf whispered in a confused manner.

"Yeah that's their group chat. I wonder what they're talking about," Serena said.

"Check on Ash's phone, he should have given you his passcode," Leaf said.

"He didn't."

"Well… We're out of luck."

Y, unable to hear anyone's conversation, began to get a little irritated.

"I'm going to use the bathroom," she announced.

However, it never reached Gary's ears. He continued typing away at his phone.

"Hey asshole, move, I need to go," Y said a little louder.

Still, Gary didn't budge. Y decided to just kick him out of the booth so she could leave.

"What was that for?" Gary said from the floor.

Y didn't say anything as she got out of the booth and stepped over him.

"Well it looks like we're done eating, we might as well clean up now," Ash said as he pocketed his phone.

Everyone else followed suit and began throwing away their trash. Serena assumed Y was done and threw her food away too.

Ash also cleaned up Pikachu's table, which was absolutely covered in ketchup. The only place that wasn't was the small corner that Pikachu decided to take a nap on.

They waited by the exit as Y came out and approached them. Ash woke Pikachu up, opting to carry him since he'd probably fall off his shoulder due to drowsiness.

"Okay, let's go," Y said.

They all left the restaurant and made it back to the boat. Grace was standing close by, waiting patiently.

"Oh there you are. I was wondering where you ran off to," Grace said.

"We just grabbed some lunch mom," Y said.

"That's good. We should be boarding in a few minutes," Grace said.

They saw a bench nearby and decided to take a seat. Leaf took Pikachu from Ash, wanting to spend a little time with the tiny mouse before she left.

The guys decided to let the girls sit while they stepped away to have a little guy talk.

"Yo Ash, I gotta say, you're one lucky dude," Gary said.

Red nodded and laughed.

"Yeah, if I was a fuckboy. I can't cheat on Serena with her twin," Ash said.

"That just makes it easier. Since Y looks exactly like Serena, you can just pretend it's her while you're plowing her," Gary said.

Ash and Red both gave him disgusted looks.

"I'm just saying, I'd take the opportunity," Gary said defensively.

Ash sighed. "This is going to be rough, I can tell."

"You'll be fine, just don't give her a chance to tempt you," Red suggested.

"Well, it's all I can really do, so I guess I will," Ash said.

Meanwhile, the girls were having a talk of their own.

"So did you ever fuck him?" Y asked.

Both Leaf and Serena turned red at the random question.

"W-what kind of question is that?" Serena said.

"Just a question, relax," Y said.

Serena calmed down as much as she could. "I'm not gonna say I did, but I'm not gonna say I didn't."

 _"Did they really do it? I can't see Serena doing those things,"_ Leaf thought to herself. Her mind briefly drifted to the time she and Ash shared an intimate moment, but quickly dismissed it before things got out of hand.

"Is he big?" Y said.

Serena turned bright red again. "Why do you need to know that?!"

"No reason," Y said. She looked at Ash and went into deep thought.

Leaf leaned to Serena. "I think you should watch your back," she whispered.

Serena sighed and nodded slowly. Leaf rubbed her back gently, ensuring her that everything would be fine.

Serena couldn't think about anything happening like that. She couldn't imagine the pain she would feel. She felt tears coming to her eyes, but quickly wiped them away.

"Hey Ash, can I talked to you for a second?" she said.

Ash turned around and saw the sad expression on her face. "Yeah, give me a second."

He turned back to the guys. "This doesn't look good boys, wish me luck."

Red and Gary each put a hand on both of his shoulder and gave a single nod. He returned the nod before heading to Serena.

"What's up?" he said.

Serena stood up and gestured for him to follow. Ash followed close behind, turning around every few feet to make sure no one was following them. Once they were in private, Serena stopped and turned to Ash.

"What's up Serena? You don't look too happy," Ash said.

"You wouldn't do anything to hurt me right?" Serena said.

Ash saw her tears start to build up and quickly pulled her into a tight hug.

"Of course not babe. You're my everything, I wouldn't hurt you," Ash said comfortingly.

Serena buried her face into his shirt and nodded. "It's just that, Y looks exactly like I do and I know she's gonna try something, I just know it."

"Don't worry about that, I'll let her know that I belong to you and you only."

Serena nodded again and hugged him a little tighter.

"Let's go back to the others okay?" Ash said.

Serena slowly let go. "I want a kiss."

Ash just smiled and nodded. He leaned in and gently placed his lips on hers. Serena tugged on her shirt a little, attempting to deepen the kiss. Ash nudged at her lips with his tongue, as if asking to enter. Serena gladly complied and let her tongue mingle with his.

The two had their tongue swirl around for a few seconds before Serena pulled away with a smile.

"Okay, let's go," she said.

Ash nodded and let her drag her back to the group. Gary and Red had apparently finished their talk because they were now standing with Y and Leaf.

"Finally, we were just about to go over there and drag you out," Gary said with his signature cocky smile.

"Like hell you would. I'd fight you for that," Ash said.

"Yeah? Let's go bitch, you and me, right now," Gary said.

Gary put his hands up in a fighting stance.

Pikachu was now awake and audibly cheering on the fight. Ash took his backpack off and handed it to Serena before assuming the same stance.

"Come at me punk," Ash said.

Gary was about to swing, but Leaf tugged on Gary's ear.

"Alright idiots, no need to cause a scene," she said.

Gary wriggled himself free before rubbing his ear. Serena handed Ash his bag and promptly smacked him on his head in punishment.

"I don't know how you function properly sometimes," she said.

Ash was about to make a rebuttal but decided against it.

"Good afternoon passengers, we will begin boarding for the S.S. Anne now. Please have your tickets ready and make your way to the ramp in an orderly manner. Thank you," a voice on the intercom said.

Everyone just looked at each other and slowly made their way to the boat. Grace had already boarded, knowing that the kids would be there soon after.

Once the reached the boarding area, everyone turned and looked at each other. Pikachu quickly jumped to Y's shoulder, not wanting to get in the middle of the group.

It wasn't that he wasn't going to miss them, Pikachu just never found himself good at saying goodbye, so he opted to stay in the back. He was a very emotional Pokemon despite his mischievous antics.

"Well… This is it guys. It's been fun," Gary said.

He looked at Ash and put his arms open, waiting for a hug. Ash smiled and pulled Gary into the hug.

"I'm gonna miss you bro. I love you man, for real," Gary said.

"You can't spell Gary without 'gay'," Ash said with a laugh. "But seriously though, I love you too, take care of yourself okay?"

"You can count on it," Gary said as he let Ash go.

Red held his arms out too, Ash also giving the other guy a hug.

"It's been great Ash," Red said.

"And to think we just started getting you to talk too dammit," Ash said with a laugh.

Red laughed with him. "Remember our promise brother. Champions."

Ash smiled and nodded. He could never forget that.

He turned to Leaf next. She had tears in her eyes already. Without a warning, she jumped into Ash's arms and started crying.

"I-I'm g-gonna mi-iss you A-Ash," she managed to get out.

Ash rubbed her back comfortingly. "I'm gonna miss you too Leaf. You've always been like a sister to me. Don't forget I'm always a call or text away."

Leaf nodded and let the boy go. She quickly wiped her tears and gave a light smile.

And finally, Serena. Serena already had tears streaming down her face. She slowly walked into Ash's arms and quickly buried her face in his shirt for what felt like the millionth time today.

"Don't cry princess. I'll always be yours," Ash said comfortingly.

Serena squeezed him tight and he did the same.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I-I love you too," she whispered back.

She looked up at him and gave him a short kiss on the lips.

"Goodbye…" she said as she pulled away.

Serena turned to her sister who was surprisingly holding back tears.

"I just got here and you're already leaving. That kinda sucks," Y said.

Serena pulled her sister into a hug. Pikachu didn't get a chance to jump away and thought it would be rude to in the middle of their hug, so he just sat on Y's head and held back tears.

"Don't worry about it sis, we'll meet up again in Kalos okay?" she said.

"You better. You owe me like 5 years plus however long I'm here," Y said.

Serena just laughed and pulled out of the hug.

"Bye guys, take care," she said.

She turned to Ash and quickly blew him a kiss before handing the employee her ticket and boarding the boat.

Pikachu jumped back on Ash's shoulder and joined him in waving as everyone got on the boat.

"Take care everybody!" he yelled.

He watched as everyone waved back shortly before entering the interior of the ship.

He then turned to Y, who had a very neutral expression on her face.

"You ready to go?" Ash said.

"I guess," Y said.

She didn't seem too happy, but Ash decided that she just needed a little space so he didn't poke at it.

They silently made their way to the nearest Pokemon Center. Ash decided that since it was mid afternoon, they should just stay at the center for the night instead of traveling and camping at night.

"Hello, and welcome to the Vernillion City Pokemon Center! How may I help you?" Nurse Joy said cheerfully.

"We'd like to rent two rooms please," Ash said.

"Why two rooms? Each room has 4 beds, wouldn't it be cheaper that way?" Y said.

"Oh I just thought you'd like your privacy, you being a girl and all," Ash said.

"It's fine."

"Well I guess one room then," Ash said.

"Okay, here are your keys, enjoy your stay!" Nurse Joy said.

Ash took them and handed one to Y. They walked to their room and opened the door. It was furnished fairly well, having 2 bunk beds and 4 drawers for their clothes.

They put their stuff down and each laid in a different bunk bed. Pikachu hopped up to the top bunk of the one that Ash was laying in and quickly fell asleep.

Ash immediately dug into his thoughts.

 _"This is it. My journey starts tomorrow. I can't wait till I'm champion of Kanto,"_ he thought to himself. He thought about all the Pokemon he was going to catch, all the friends he was going to make, and the adventures that he'd go on; it made him smile.

He looked over at the other bed and saw that Y had already fallen asleep as well. He stared up at the bottom of the other bunk before closing his eyes.

 _"I wanna be the very best."_

With that being his last thought, Ash fell asleep.

* * *

 **A/N: Missed the deadline by roughly 3 hours. Oh well, at least it's out :P**

 **Now this chapter was suuuuuuuuper fluffy. I had to introduce one new character and get rid of 4 others so they were in the right place when they needed to be _and_ keep it at least slightly entertaining. No lemon this chapter since no one said anything. ****¯\\_(ツ)_/¯**

 **So now that everyone's started their journey, the real fun can begin. It'll be about 2-4 more chapters before the part that initially gave me the idea to write this story comes up. I don't plan on there being too many more fluff chapters for the rest of the story, so it should all be plot development from here. This story won't follow too much of the canon storyline, and if it does, it'll be extremely short.**

 **Btw, I don't plan on any character catching more than a team's worth, so there won't be any need to introduce new Pokemon and the sort. I feel like this story might run for 20-30 chapters (I might be extremely off) so Pokemon catching won't be too much of a topic.**

 **Expect the next chapter in about a week, Sunday the latest. Until then, please review, like, favorite, all the things. See ya!**


	7. Chapter 7

**(A/N: Check the A/N at the end of the chapter.)**

* * *

Chapter 7: Contact

Ash slowly woke up. His eyes fluttered opened and he briefly forgot where he was.

 _"Oh that's right, I'm at the Vermillion Pokemon Center,"_ Ash thought.

He rolled over and saw Yvonne in the other bed, still fast asleep. Ash pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time. It was pretty close to midnight.

 _"Just how long were we sleeping?"_ Ash thought.

He quickly unlocked his phone and saw that he had 4 alerts. He had a call from his mom, a call _and_ text from Serena, and a text from the guys' group chat. He decided to call his mom in the morning, seeing as the conversation could last for a while. He checked the guys' message first.

 ** _Gary:_** _Dickwad call Serena shes goin insane rn_

 _"Well that can't be good."_ Ash received that text a solid 2 hours ago, so he could only imagine how Serena was reacting. He quickly dialed her number and pressed call. It rang for a few seconds before someone responded.

"…Hello?" Serena said.

"Hey, it's me," Ash said.

"Hey Ash…" Serena said.

"What's up?"

"Could be better. Where have you been? I've been trying to get a hold of you."

"Yeah sorry, I fell asleep."

They talked for the next hour and a half, talking about the most random things. They tried not to focus on the distance between them and just enjoy the conversation they were having. Eventually, Serena began to feel tired and hung up. Ash, on the other hand, was still wide awake.

He left the room, opting for some fresh air. Deciding that street level was too boring, Ash made his way to the roof of the building. As he opened the door, a cool sea breeze hit him, instantly making him feel at ease. He looked over the horizon, slowly drifting into deep thought.

Roughly half an hour later, his chain of thought was broken as he felt an intense yawn build up in his chest before he released it. He returned to his room to see that both of his companions had not awoken, or even moved at that. He climbed back into his bed and fell asleep for the second time that night.

The next morning, Ash was awoken by the sound of a hair dryer. He looked over at the other bed and saw that Y wasn't there, so he assumed she was the one responsible for the noise. He climbed out of bed and groggily walked to the bathroom to see Y with a towel wrapped around her body, blow drying her hair. She saw him in the mirror and turned off the blow dryer.

"Well it's about time you got up, go get dressed quick or you'll miss breakfast," Y said.

Ash nodded and turned around. Y closed the bathroom door to ensure his privacy and he quickly changed into a fresh set of clothes. Pikachu was still asleep, so he woke the sleeping mouse, and the pair walked out to get breakfast.

After a filling breakfast, Ash and Pikachu made it back to their room and found Y sitting on the edge of her bed.

"So what's the plan captain?" she said.

"Well, Pikachu and I are gonna go challenge the gym here, then go through Route 6 to Saffron City. If we have time then, I'll challenge the gym there," Ash said.

"That's a solid plan," Y said. "Who's on your team?"

"Team?" Ash said with a confused look.

"Don't tell me your me your only Pokemon is Pikachu," Y said as she got up from her bed.

"And what if he is?"

"… I fail to see what Serena sees in you…"

With that, Y left the room.

"Hey! Wait up!" Ash said as he chased her down.

They checked out of the center and began the journey.

"Alright genius, do you even know where the gym is?" Y said as she folded her arms.

"Yeah, it's right down this street," Ash said point in the general direction.

Y just nodded and stepped aside so Ash could lead. It didn't take them long to get to the gym. It was exactly where Ash planned it to be, however, it was closed.

"Whaaaat?! It's closed!" Ash said as he tried to shake the doors open.

"No sense in trying to force it open. What's plan B?" Y said.

"I'm not too sure honestly. I was gonna just wing it depending on how the gym battle went," Ash said as he scratched his head.

"Dumbass…" Y said to herself. However, it didn't go unnoticed.

"You know, you're not very nice," Ash replied.

"Look, I'm not here to be nice. You promised an adventure, but this adventure is pretty boring right now," Y said with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Wow, what did I do to you? I never asked for you to come along," Ash said, mimicking the amount of anger Y projected.

"Are gonna do something or just stand around?" Y said.

"Honestly, what's your problem? I don't get why you're so upset," Ash said, his voice starting to rise.

"I…" Y managed before she trailed off.

Ash saw her facial expression soften.

"I just miss my sister okay? I haven't seen her in forever and it's like she wasn't even excited to see me," Y said. "And then traveling with you makes me think of her all the time."

Ash tried to recall what Serena said a few years ago.

 _"Me and Y didn't exactly get along. Although we have a similar fashion sense, that's where the similarities end. Y is assertive, I'm passive, Y is athletic, I'm not so athletic. The list goes on,"_ Ash remembered.

"Really? I remember Serena telling me that you guys didn't get along," Ash said.

"Did she really say that?..." Yvonne's face took on an extremely hurt expression. Ash thought she was going to start crying any second now.

Pikachu tried to diffuse the situation by jumping on her shoulder and rubbing his cheek on her face. However, she just picked him up off her shoulder and handed him back to Ash.

"Yeah, she did. She never really explained why though," Ash said nervously. He wasn't trying to set off a mine.

Y slowly nodded her head, not bothering to respond to what Ash had said.

"I guess you should talk to her about that," Ash said.

"I try to, I really do, but it's like she never wants to talk to me," Y said.

Both Ash and Pikachu noticed that tears started running down her cheeks. Pikachu signaled for him to do something, but Ash didn't know what to do. Ash and Pikachu exchanged a multitude of gestures, all of which went unnoticed by Y. Pikachu just sighed and hopped off his shoulder and signaled to her one last time.

Ash just sighed and did the only thing he could think of doing. He quickly pulled her into a hug and just held her. He slowly started rubbing her back, causing the girl to bury her face into his shoulder and cry even more.

"It's alright Y, just give it some time," Ash said comfortingly.

He looked around and noticed that some people on the street had started staring at them, making him feel uncomfortable.

"Come on Y, let's go, I have a plan B," Ash said.

They both released each other and Y quickly wiped away her tears. She kept the sad expression, but just followed Ash silently. They ended up back at the Pokemon Center, where Ash got on the video phone. He texted Serena on the way back and told her to call the Vermillion City Center. He was quickly patched through and saw Serena sitting on the other side of the screen.

"Hey, what did you need to talk about?" Serena asked.

"I don't need to talk, you and her do," Ash said as he pulled Y into view.

She still had the sad expression, which Serena immediately noticed.

"What's wrong Yvonne?" Serena said with concern in her voice.

Y didn't speak. She just sat still, silently staring at what could've easily been her reflection.

"I miss you…" she finally said.

Serena was about to respond, but was quickly cut off by her mom's voice.

" _*sigh*_ Let's talk about it later, okay? I miss you too sis, text me." Without another word, the screen went to black.

Y got up, her face now neutral. Ash saw her stare into the black screen for a few seconds.

"You okay?" Ash asked.

Y turned to him. "Yeah, a lot better honestly, but I guess it could always be better."

"Okay well that's good. Let me call Professor Oak quick and then we can leave," he responded.

Y nodded and stepped aside so Ash and Pikachu could take a seat. Ash dialed Oak's number and waited until the old man finally appeared.

"Ah, Ash my boy, how are things doing?" Oak said as he realized who had called him.

"Everything's great, I'm just about to start my journey," Ash said excitedly.

"That's good! And how about you Ms. Gabena?" Oak said to the girl. "I didn't expect you to stay in Kanto."

Y had a confused look on her face.

"Oh that's not Serena, this is Yvonne, her twin," Ash said for her.

"Ah this is the twin she spoke of. My apologies, I'm Professor Samuel Oak, it's a pleasure to meet you," Oak said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too," Y said with a smile.

"Wonderful. Now Ash, I found the little… 'Surprise' that your friend left for me," Oak said.

Ash traced a little bit of venom in his tone. "What do you mean? What are you talking about?"

"Well your _friend_ right there defecated in my coffee!" Oak said loudly.

"Defecated?..." Ash said with a confused tone.

Pikachu jumped down and sat under the chair, not knowing what to expect. Y's face took on a horrid expression.

"You're lying, Pikachu wouldn't do that," Y said in disbelief.

"Oh but he did! He surely did…" Oak said.

"Y, you know what he's talking about?" Ash said with a confused look

"Ash… He shit in his coffee," Y said quietly.

Ash nearly fell out of his chair, surprised at what he was just told.

"WHAT?! No he didn't, that's gross," Ash said disgustedly.

He reached under and grabbed Pikachu.

"Did you do that?" Ash said as he looked into Pikachu's eyes.

Pikachu slowly shook his head, even though he knew he was caught. Ash turned the small Pokemon so that he could face the screen.

"Tell Oak you're sorry," Ash commanded.

Pikachu sighed before releasing a few quiet "Pika pi's". Ash put Pikachu back on the floor as soon as he was satisfied.

"I'm really sorry about that Professor, I won't let it happen again," Ash said.

"I hope so. The experience surely wasn't pleasant," Oak said.

"Professor, what should we do, the Vermillion Gym is closed and there's nothing saying when it'll open back up," Ash said trying to change the topic.

"If you're in Vermillion, Saffron isn't too far, maybe you could challenge Sabrina," Oak suggested.

"Saffron…" Ash whispered to himself.

"Well on that note, I must be going. Good luck on your journey Ash, have fun!"

Oak knew Ash and Pikachu didn't stand a chance against Sabrina, he just wanted to get a little payback.

Ash didn't even get to respond before Oak hung up. He sighed and got up from the chair. As he turned around, he saw that Pikachu had jumped into Y's arms.

"I don't even know what to do with you anymore," Ash said as he smiled and pet the small creature. "Come on let's go."

Pikachu jumped back on to Ash's shoulder and the three of them left the Center.

The walk to Route 6 was pretty quiet. The only thing breaking the silence was Y's phone going off every few seconds. Ash assumed it was Serena that was texting her and just let it be.

It didn't take them long to reach the outskirts of Vermillion City. Once they were out, they saw a big open field spreading in all directions. Ash took a deep breath in and smiled.

"This is it buddy, our very own journey."

He was about to run down the path, but was stopped by a hand being placed on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Y with a determined smile.

"What's up Yvonne?" Ash asked confused.

"Battle me," Y simply stated.

"What?"

"I said battle me. Unless you're too chicken," Y said with a slick smile.

Ash didn't say another word. He ran across the field as Pikachu jumped down and got into an aggressive stance.

"Well it's good to see you're feeling better, but I'm not gonna go easy on you!" Ash yelled from across the field.

"I hope not. Go Charizard!" Y yelled as she tossed a ball forward.

Charizard materialized in front of her and shot a stream of fire into the air.

"Charizard huh? Looks like more practice to beat Red," Ash said to himself. He then noticed Charizard had a necklace on it, but didn't think anything of it.

"You can have the first move. Ladies first," Y said cockily.

"Ha ha, very funny. I'll make you regret that. Pikachu use Electric Terrain!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu discharged massive amounts of electricity into the ground, causing sparks to jump around.

"That's it? You've gotta do more than that! Swords Dance!"

Charizard cried as swords appeared around him to boost his attack power.

"Charge!" Ash commanded.

Pikachu absorbed electricity, letting it build up inside his tiny body.

"Yawwwn. Let's make things interesting. Earthquake!" Y yelled.

Charizard merely lifted his foot and stomped down, causing massive cracks to appear in the ground. Ash didn't even have to tell Pikachu to dodge, he just began jumping from flying rock to flying rock, trying to get as high as possible.

"Thunder, now!" Ash said quickly.

Pikachu yelled into the clouds, causing a massive bolt to come down and strike Charizard. It did extreme amounts of damage, causing Charizard to go down immediately. Ash began cheering while Y kept a shocked look on her face.

"What?! Down after one hit? What's up with that?!" Y said confused.

"Well you see young Yvonne, Electric Terrain boosts electric attacks, Charge doubles the next attack's power of it's an electric type, and Thunder-."

"Is super effective against flying," Y finished. "Well you certainly got me there. Maybe you guys aren't half bad."

Y returned her fainted Charizard as Ash and Pikachu approached her. Ash gave Y a cocky smile before they all began walking up the path toward Saffron City.

"That was a pretty good battle Ash, I guess I underestimated you too much," Y said.

"Yeah you did. I'm not gonna lie, you caught me off guard pulling out a Charizard," Ash replied.

"Charizard was my first Pokemon. Well my second actually. Fennekin was my first, but she got along with Serena more, so I gave Fennekin to her and got Charizard as Charmander," Y revealed.

Ash tried to think of Y with Braixen. Yvonne was definitely not as feminine as Serena, so he could see why they wouldn't get along as well.

He quickly shook the thought from his head and turned to Y. He was just about to reply but saw that she was fully engrossed in her phone and decided to leave her alone.

He heard another ring, half expecting it to be Y's phone, but was surprised when he realized it was his. He pulled it out and checked who it was.

 ** _Red:_** _How's it going bro?_

Ash smiled, happy that Red and Gary hadn't forgotten about him.

 ** _Ash:_** _Pretty good just DESTROYED Y in a battle :D_

It didn't take long for someone to reply back.

 ** _Gary:_** _but did u hit it tho_

This caused Ash to frown.

 ** _Ash:_** _Fuck off_

 ** _Gary:_** _haha im just playin u pleb anyway we was just textin u to let u kno that we docked in Hoenn_

 ** _Ash:_** _How's that goin?_

 ** _Red:_** _Meh_

 ** _Gary:_** _^^^ i jus wanna fly to Sinnoh already_

 ** _Ash:_** _Alright just lmk what happens_

 ** _Red:_** _Ok_

Ash then pocketed his phone. He looked up and saw that the Saffron skyline had just started to appear above the horizon. His smile grew on his face.

"This is it buddy, let's go!" Ash said.

Pikachu cried in agreement. Ash grabbed by the wrist and started dragging her along, causing her to nearly drop her phone.

"Ash, what the fuck?!" Y screamed.

"Come on! No time to waste!" Ash said as he let her go.

Ash ran ahead, but Y quickly caught up to him. The pair raced to the edge of Saffron, Y easily taking the lead. Ash's eyes widened when he saw the blonde in front of him. He was not about to lose to her. He leaned forward, hoping to get a little more aerodynamic. He quickly caught up but Y was still a little faster.

Once they reached the city limits, the pair slowed down and stopped. Ash had to bend over and take several deep breaths while Y just stood over him, leisurely panting.

"Don't drag me ever again, or I promise I will beat your ass," Y said.

Ash, still unable to breathe properly, just flipped her off. Y rolled her eyes at the gesture and called for Pikachu to come to her. The little yellow Pokemon happily complied and sat on her head.

"Come on Pikachu, let's go find the gym," Y said.

Ash tried to muster some strength to tell them to wait, but ultimately couldn't. He just slowly chased after them, hoping he would catch up.

Y looked at all the buildings and skyscrapers. Some had bright lights flashing on them, indicating what company they belonged to. Others had vibrant billboards on them, various advertisements plastered on each of them.

It didn't take long for Y to find the gym. She luckily wandered down the right street and ended up at its doorstep. Ash lazily approached them, but soon broke into a sprint when he realized what building they were in front of.

"Well it looks like you found some energy," Y said.

He looked up and saw the League insignia sitting right above the door, completely ignoring Y's statement.

"Wow, the Saffron City Gym. I can't wait until I get my first badge," Ash said.

"I don't know Ash. I don't doubt your skill, but I think this gym is way above your level," Y said.

"And what makes you think that?" Ash said.

"The Psychic Gym Leader in Kalos told me that Sabrina runs the psychic gym here. She said that Sabrina is undisputedly the best psychic in the world. There's no doubt that she'll be a powerful trainer," Y said.

Ash thought about it for a second. "Nah, I'll be fine. I believe me and Pikachu can do this!" Ash said confidently.

With that, he ran pulled the doors of the gym open and ran inside. Y just shrugged her shoulders and walked in after him.

Not 10 minutes later, the pair walked back out. Ash hung his head in shame, cradling Pikachu in his arms. Pikachu didn't stand a chance against Sabrina's Alakazam.

"I don't get it! We did everything right!" Ash complained.

"I told you, the difference in power is obvious. If Pikachu was stronger, then no doubt your strategy would have been successful," Y said reassuringly.

Ash sighed. "Well I guess we just have to train some more. I will defeat her and become the champion!"

The pair walked to the nearby Pokemon Center to get Pikachu patched up. While waiting, Ash and Y grabbed something to eat.

"So how are things with you and Serena?" Ash asked.

The question caught her off guard, she wasn't expecting to have a conversation with him.

"Better, I guess. I can see why she said those things," Y said.

"Care to explain?" Ash said.

"Long story short, I put a sort of little sister vibe and annoyed the hell out of her, so I guess she didn't like my presence," Y said nonchalantly.

Ash was surprised that she could say all of that emotionlessly when she was just crying about the situation a few hours later.

"You better treat her good you know. I'll fuck you up if you don't," Y said.

"Of course. I'd never hurt Serena," Ash said before he took a sip of his drink.

"The only other girl you can fuck is me," Y said nonchalantly before putting more food into her mouth.

Ash nearly choked on his drink. He started coughing uncontrollably before he eventually recovered from the shock. He was about to question her, but was interrupted when Nurse Joy called him over. After recovering Pikachu, he turned to her and sat back down to continue eating.

"So what are we gonna do now?" Y asked.

"No no, don't think I forgot about what you said," Ash said loudly.

Y shrugged. "What about it?"

"Why are you an exception?!" Ash asked, even louder than his previous statement.

"Keep it down dumbass. And because, that's my twin, we could just say that you got intoxicated or something and you thought it was her," Y said.

Ash was once again shocked that she could say all of this nonchalantly. "But that's lying!"  
Y just shrugged again.

"* _sigh_ * Whatever. It's not happening anyway," Ash said.

"Whatever, so are you gonna answer my question now or what?"

"Well it's gonna be awhile before I can seriously challenge Sabrina again. Let me see something," Ash said as he pulled out his phone.

He quickly looked up a map of Kanto and saw that Cerulean City was nearby.

"Let's go to Cerulean City, I can challenge the gym there," Ash said.

"Ooh, I've heard of Cerulean. I heard the beaches there are amazing," Y replied.

"They're not as good as the ones in Seafoam, but they're pretty good."

"Okay then, let's go, I wanna get there before nightfall."  
Ash nodded in agreement and got up. After they cleaned their mess up, they left the Pokemon Center and headed up Route 5.

The walk was generally quiet, the only sound once again being from Y's phone. However, it was less frequent this time as she was busy playing with Pikachu. It didn't take much more than an hour to reach the outskirts of neighboring city. The pair spotted the beach before the skyline even appeared on the horizon.

Ash decided to relax this time and not drag Y down the path and just enjoy the walk. He also didn't want to interrupt the fun she was having chasing Pikachu around. It made him smile that she wasn't feeling so down anymore.

Once they reached the inner city, it didn't take long to find their way around. Cerulean City wasn't as developed as Saffron, so the buildings didn't block their view of the Pokemon Center's red roof. They quickly stopped by to ask the branch's Nurse Joy where the gym was located. After receiving the directions, they quickly made their way to gym and walked in.

It opened up into a lobby area with a sign that said "battlefield/pool" pointing toward a long hallway. At the end of the hallway as a set of double doors which opened into large pool, and by the side of it was an orange haired girl wearing a white one-piece swimsuit with a long light blue overcoat **(A/N: Misty's HGSS Appearance)** , standing next to a blue, humanoid duck looking Pokemon. They both had their backs to the trio, not even noticing when they walked in.

"Great job Starmie! Water Pulse, one more time!" the girl commanded.

They watched as the purple star Pokemon jumped out of the water and shot a ball of water into the air.

"Awesome, now Golduck, use Psychic before it hits the roof," she commanded once more.

"She looks tough Ash," Y said.

"It's a water gym, I think Pikachu can handle it," Ash said confidently.

The blue duck then raised its hands toward the ball of water before it spontaneously dispersed.

"Alright, that's enough for today everyone," she said.

She turned around and jumped a little bit, startled to see a bunch of strangers just staring at her.

"Geez, you scared the hell out of me," the orange haired girl said.

"Sorry about that, you looked so into your routine and we didn't want to interrupt," Ash said as he scratched the back of his head.

"I understand," she said as she approached them. "Oh how rude of me, my name is Misty."

She extended her hand toward Ash. "And you are?"

"My name is Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town!" Ash said excitedly. He quickly grabbed Misty's hand and gave it a frim shake. Misty had to stifle a laugh at how enthusiastic the boy was.

"And I'm Yvonne, but you can call me Y," Y said as she shook Misty's hand, more gently than Ash had just before.

"Nice to meet you both. How can I help you?" Misty said.

"I'm here for a gym battle!" Ash said.

"Hmm, well I was just about to close up, but I guess I can slip a battle in," Misty said. "How does a 3 on 3 sound?"  
Y sighed, knowing what was coming next.

"Uhh… I-I only have one Pokemon, my buddy Pikachu," he said nervously.

"And you want to challenge gyms with just one?" Misty asked, genuinely confused.  
"No, I just haven't had the opportunity to catch more," Ash said.

"Can your girlfriend let you borrow 2?" Misty suggested. She assumed they knew each other long enough that they had a bond with each other's Pokemon as well.

"Oh, she's uh… not my girlfriend," Ash said.

"Really Ash? You're gonna deny our relationship just because you're talking to a pretty girl? I can't believe you," Y said.

She wanted to see if Misty would end up doing a 3 on 1. Ash, on the other hand, was unaware of her motives and quickly defended himself.

"Y what are you talking about?! I was never with you! I'm in love with your sister!" Ash cried.

Y faked hurt and even let a few fake tears fall. "Wow Ash… Thanks for the heads up. And you can forget about borrowing Charizard and Staraptor."

"What…" Ash said.

" _*cough*_ Uh, it's kind of weird being in your guys' problems but can we move past this? I can do a 1 on 1 this time only. But if you lose, you have to come back with 3," Misty said awkwardly.

"Okay! 1 on 1, let's go!" Ash said before rushing to the other side of the field. He didn't want to be close to Y after that exchange, who was slightly disappointed that Ash actually might have a chance.

Misty sighed and took her side of the field.

"Alright! This is a 1 on 1 battle, Gym Leader Misty versus Challenge Ash Ketchum for the Cascade Badge," Misty said. "Challenger, send out your Pokemon!"

"Alright, Pikachu, I choose you!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu jumped from his shoulder to the nearest island before sparking his cheeks up.

"Go Starmie!" Misty said.

Starmie once again jumped out of the water on to the island closest to Misty.

"You can have the first move Ash" Misty said from across the field.

"Alright then. Pikachu, start this off with a Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded.

Pikachu jumped high into the air and quickly discharged a bolt of electricity at Starmie.

"Starmie dodge!" Misty yelled.

Starmie dove to the side and quickly got back into position to fire a counter attack.

"Flash Cannon!" Misty cried.

A bright light grew in Stamie's center gem and unleashed toward Pikachu.

"Brick Break, on the sand!" Ash said as he covered his eyes.

Pikachu's hand turned white and he smashed it into the ground in front of him, sending the sand flying into the air before the Flash Cannon hit him. Upon contact, the sand exploded, sending hot sand in all directions and forcing everyone to cover their eyes, aside from Ash and Pikachu who protected themselves from it beforehand.

"One more time!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu quickly shook the sand off and jumped through the smoke and bashed his hand on Starmie's gem. Starmie skidded back, unaware of what hit it.

"Don't let up! Thunder Punch!" Ash commanded.

Pikachu's hand became covered in sparks as he rushed Misty's Starmie, both of which still hadn't managed to fully clean their eyes out. When Misty finally looked back at the field, her eyes widened when Starmie splashed into the water. Misty saw that Starmie had electricity coursing through it when it jumped back on the island.

 _"Shit! Pikachu's Static ability must have activated,"_ she thought to herself. _"We have to play this safe."_

"Starmie, dive in the water and start swimming!" Misty said.

Starmie jumped in and began swimming swiftly, as though it wasn't even paralyzed.

"Pikachu, lock on to it and use Electro Ball!" Ash said.

Pikachu tried his best to find Starmie but ultimately couldn't and just fired repeatedly where he thought it was. This made Misty smile.

"Alright Starmie! Use Psyshock!" Misty yelled confidently.

Without even leaving the water, Starmie generated 3 orbs of psychic energy above its position and launched them at Pikachu. Before he could react, he took the hit and flew into the water.

"Looks like I have the advantage now, Ash," Misty said.

Ash grit his teeth. "Thunder!"

Misty easily saw through what Ash was planning. She waited until she saw the bolt coming down to call her next move.

"Jump Starmie!" Misty said.

Starmie jumped out just before the bolt hit the water. Misty then saw Ash smirk. Pikachu had already gotten out of the water and on to another island a little further away from Ash. She had no clue what he was planning. The sound of Starmie splashing back into the water shook her out of her thoughts.

"Start swimming again, and use Psyshock!" Misty said.

Ash waited until he saw the orbs begin to form over Starmie.

"Now!" He yelled.

Pikachu unleashed another Thunder, much quicker than he had the first time.

"Jump! Avoid the water!"

Starmie jumped up again, at the cost of Psyshock's accuracy, causing it to miss its target. The Thunder struck the water again, missing Starmie barely.

"Electro Ball!" Ash yelled.

Before Starmie could land, Pikachu predicted what island it would land on and fired it at the island. Just as planned, it struck the sand below it, causing another flurry of hot sand to fly.

"Thunder Punch!"

Pikachu flew down with a charged fist through the giant cloud of dust and sand.

"Protect!"

As the dust settled, Starmie was seen holding up a barrier that Pikachu couldn't break, even with repeated punches.

"Iron Tail!" Ash yelled.

Pikachu sent one last Thunder Punch before quickly doing a 360 and slamming his Iron Tail into Starmie's side, flinging it into the water.

A few seconds later, Starmie floated up, unresponsive. Misty frowned at the result as she returned her downed Pokemon.

"Yes! We did it Pikachu!" Ash yelled as Pikachu jumped out of the pool and into Ash's arms.

"That's a resilient Pikachu you got there. No one has been able to take even a single one of my Starmie's Psyshocks," Misty complimented.

Y then approached the other two trainers.

"That was a solid battle Ash, I guess you didn't need Charizard and Staraptor after all," she said.

"Nah, that wasn't necessary," Ash said as Pikachu jumped on to Y's shoulder.

"Don't think you're off the hook mister, no reward for you tonight," Y said.

This caused both Ash and Misty to blush furiously.

"Didn't need to know that but, umm, I'll go get your badge now," Misty said as she left awkwardly.

As soon as she was out of the battlefield area, she closed the doors behind her, causing Y burst into laughter.

"Oh my GOD, that was hilarious!" Y said.

"Y, what the hell are you thinking?! You're making this really weird for me!" Ash said.

"I just needed to have a little fun after this morning, that's all," Y said as her laughter died down.

"…I'm gonna get you back," Ash said venomously. Just then, he heard Misty's footsteps from down the hall and quickly came up with an idea.

"I think Misty's back," Ash said.

This caused Y to turn around to face the double doors, her back now to Ash. He quickly stepped forward and wrapped one arm around her waist slipped his other hand under the front of her skirt.

The sudden action startled both Y and Pikachu, causing the latter to jump to the floor. "Ash!"

He instantly put his lips to her neck, instantly making her knees weak. She reached her hand up to his head and started playing with his hair, causing his hat to fall off. With her other hand, she started moving Ash's hand to pleasure herself.

Misty opened the door a few seconds later.

"Okay Ash! Here's yo-," Misty started. She was completely appalled by what she saw. Two teenagers doing dirty things in her gym. "HEY!"

The two other people instantly separated from each other and acted as if nothing was going on. Pikachu then sighed and jumped back on to Ash's shoulder.

"* _sigh_ * Just take your badge and get out," Misty said.

Y instantly grabbed Ash's hand and dragged him to the orange haired girl by the door. She took the badge case from Misty and put it in her pocket.

"Thanks! Come on Ash, we need to check into the Pokemon Center, **_NOW_** ," Y demanded.

"I fucked up…" Ash whispered to his best friend.

Pikachu sighed at how bad Ash's plan had gone. He wasn't even sure what he was thinking when that came into his head. Embarrassment maybe? Pikachu would never know.

Y sped down the street with Ash in tow. She quickly checked them both into a room at the Pokemon Center and left Pikachu with Nurse Joy before attempting to drag him into the room.

Ash looked at Pikachu with the need for help pouring out of his eyes, but all Pikachu did was laugh at Ash. Ash then proceeded to flip him off as they disappears around a corner.

Yvonne was violent with her dragging, viciously holding on to his wrist to ensure he didn't break free. The closer they got to the room, the more Ash began to resist.

"There's no getting out of this Ketchum, you are going to _fuck me_ when we get into this room," Y hissed as she felt his tugs become more frequent.

Ash swallowed the lump in his throat as Y wrestled the door opened. Once she did, she threw him on the bed and pinned him down.

She looked down at him, her sky blue eyes filled with lust. Ash felt as if he was a piece of meat that a lioness was about to viciously tear into. The thought made him flinch slightly as she dove in and locked lips with him.

Yvonne was very good at what she did, it was almost as if her lust was transferring to him.

 _"Maybe I can let it slide one time,"_ Ash thought to himself.

Y felt Ash ease up under her and finally unpinned him, allowing his hands to wander all over her body.

 _"She feels like Serena. Definitely looks like her. I think I can handle it."_

Y then began sliding down Ash's body and unbuckled his pants and pulled his now erect dick out. She gave it a couple of looks before wrapping her lips around it and giving it a light suck. This caused Ash to grip the sheets and grunt to himself.

 _"I'll be okay."_

 **Meanwhile**

It was raining in Pallet Town. Night had already fallen and a familiar professor was sitting at his desk, video chatting with an old friend.

"That's great to hear! Maybe you can get the storage system working in other regions to make it easier to transfer Pokemon," Oak said.

"I'm trying. I'm talking to Lanette to see if she can help me out in Hoenn. Ask your boy if he can find someone in Sinnoh while he's there," the other man said.

"I'll be sure to do that," Oak said.

"Alright Sam, I'll catch you later," the other man said before he hung up.

Oak sighed to himself. He never particularly enjoyed the rain. It always made him feel uneasy, like someone was creeping up on him. He continued typing notes on his computer, but a sudden noise caught his attention.

"Oh no, I didn't think it'd be so soon," he said to himself quietly.

He quickly saved his notes and opened up a new document. He furiously began typing, his fingers gliding across the keyboard. The noises became louder and more frequent, causing him to be more and more on edge.

But suddenly, the noises stopped. All he heard was the gentle tapping of the rain. He quickly minimized the new document and opened the lowest drawer on the desk. Within it was a single Glock 17 handgun. He dropped the magazine out of the grip and checked how many rounds he had loaded. Satisfied with the number, he loaded it back in.

"I didn't think this would happen so quickly," Oak said, not pulling out the weapon yet.

Another sudden noise was all it took for him to pull it out and close the drawer. Then, all the lights cut out, the only thing emitting any light was the computer monitor shining in his face.

"Prepare for trouble…"

"And make it double…"

Oak sighed to himself. "Just know, I'm not going down without a fight!"

Silence. With his free hand, he turned off the monitor to create a pitch black environment.

"I want to go out with a bang," he said quietly.

* * *

 **(A/N: Wow this chapter was late. But I have a good reason! Shortly after the last chapter was posted, I ended up getting really sick (pneumonia) and had to stay a few days in a hospital bed. So there was that :P and then I started playing Destiny's new expansion and it's pretty good. I completely forgot about this story until I accidentally opened FanFiction one day. After that long break, it was pretty hard to continue writing; I had a little less than half done before I had to go to the hospital so rereading what I typed already was pretty strange tbh, but I left it. So if you didn't like the chapter, I'm sorry, I'll make it up in the next one.**

 **Discussion time. In this chapter, we have Ash challenging two gyms, and getting decimated in one. I feel like I did make Pikachu a little OP in the Misty battle, let me know if I did. We also see Ash giving in to Y's temptations. Will it bite him in the ass? Probably. And then what happened with Oak at the end? That slogan sounded familiar... I wonder who it could be? And a GLOCK? There's guns in this universe? Yes, and it'll be a central point. What will happen with Oak? Was he just hallucinating? Find out next time!**

 **Until then, please review, favorite, follow, PM, all the things. See ya!)**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Beauty Always Dies

The sun just began to rise over Cerulean City. It caught the eye of a young trainer, slowly waking him up. Ash slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times to get all the sleep out. He attempted to stretch, but found that something was blocking his right arm. That's when he remembered what happened last night.

He slowly looked to his right and saw a head of honey blonde hair on top of where his arm should be.

 _"I'm so fucked,"_ Ash thought to himself.

He brushed some of the hair out of Y's face to make sure it was her and not Serena, but either way, they looked exactly the same. The contact was all it took for her to wake up. She stretched herself and then looked up at the boy she was lying in bed with.

"Good morning," she said with a smile.

Ash didn't respond but just looked at her goofily, causing her to frown.

"Are you seriously not gonna tell me 'good morning' just because we fucked last night?" Y said.

"Hehe, sorry, I guess this whole cheating this is getting to me," Ash said nervously.

"Don't worry about it, it's our little secret," Y said with a wink.

"I guess. I mean, it was kinda like doing it with Serena," Ash said.

"Ooh, so you and Serena have done it before," Y said slyly. "Who was better?"

 _"Now I'm extra fucked,"_ Ash thought. He knew that Y has had much more experience than Serena, but he couldn't bring himself to admit Y was better.

"I can't really say, it's been awhile since me and Serena shared a moment like that," Ash said.

"I can take that," Y said. "So can this be a regular thing or was it just one time?"

"I don't know Yvonne, it feels wrong," Ash said meekly.

"Fine, I'll just rape you then," Y said as she got out of the bed.

Y didn't see that Ash paled at her response. His eyes just followed her naked body as she turned the corner to go to the bathroom and take a shower. As soon as she disappeared, he reached off the side of the bed to grab his phone out of his pants pocket. Unfortunately, he forgot to charge it because of last night's activities and realized that it had died. He got out of bed, put his phone to charge, and put on some clothes to go get Pikachu from Nurse Joy.

He came back several minutes later, Pikachu perched on his shoulder. Y was still taking a shower, so just sat Pikachu on the floor and checked his phone. He laid down on the bed and began checking all his notifications.

Y came out of the bathroom several minutes later. She picked up her clothes off the floor and pulled a fresh set out of her back before going back in and changing.

"Ash, go take a shower," she commanded.

Ash nodded and put his phone down and went to take a shower. He stood under the hot water, just thinking about how his journey was going so far. He challenged 2 gyms and 1 badge. He didn't expect to blitz through them so quickly, but he thought it would've been awhile before he even got one. The thought made him smile. He quickly finished his shower after realizing how hungry he had gotten. After changing and cleaning up the room, they all left and checked out before grabbing some breakfast.

"So where to now?" Y asked.

"That's a great question. Let me check my map really quick," Ash said as he pulled out his phone.

Every city, aside from Saffron, was a good distance away. His choices were either Pewter City or Lavender Town.

"Okay, your choice. We can either go to Pewter City or Lavender Town," Ash said.

"Which one is closer?" Y asked.

"It looks like Lavender is closer," Ash responded. "But I think it's pretty much a ghost town, from what I've heard."

"I really don't care how many people are there, I just want something to do," Y said.

"No not ghost town like that, ghost town as in there are a lot of Ghost Type Pokemon," Ash said with a chuckle.

Y felt a shudder go down her spine. "Fuck that, let's go to Pewter."

Ash laughed at her response. "Alright fine, it's this way. It might take all day to get there though."

"Don't care, let's go," Y said.

Ash just shrugged with a smile and walked in the general direction of Pewter. It didn't take long to enter Route 4, but the route seemed fairly long to them. Along the way, two guys were loudly arguing, disrupting the peaceful talk that Ash and Y were having. Because of this, they decided to investigate.

Following the sound of their voices, they found two fighters were arguing about who's move was stronger.

"No! Mega Kick can take down any Mega Punch user in one hit!" the first fighter yelled.

"Oh please! Mega Punch is the superior move! It'll knock any Mega Kick user to the ground!" the second replied.

"Are they really arguing about this?" Ash whispered to Y.

Y, on the other hand, didn't particularly enjoy the yelling. "HEY! Will you two muscle heads shut up?!"

"You! What Pokemon do you have?" the first asked.

"Pikachu can learn Mega Punch! Let me teach it to it!" the second yelled.

"Uhh… No?" Ash said.

"Ha! Smart man! He wants it to learn Mega Kick!" the first retorted.

"I'll Mega Kick both of you if you don't shut up!" Y yelled as she sent out Charizard.

"A Charizard! That can learn Mega Punch!" the second said.

"Getting desperate I see," the first said cheekily.

"Shut it! Charizard, will you learn Mega Punch?" the second said.

Charizard just huffed fire out of its nose, intimidating both fighters. Charizard pointed to the first fighter.

"Mega Kick it is!" the first yelled. He ran up to Charizard and placed both of his hands on its chest and closed his eyes.

"This may make you uncomfortable, but please bear with me," the first said calmly.

His feet began glowing white. Ash, Y, and Pikachu all watched as the glow travelled up his legs, through his body, and out his hands, into Charizard's chest. As it touched him, Charizard grunted and closed his eyes. Soon, his body did the same; glow from his chest, down his legs, into his feet. As the fighter let go, the power pulsed from under Charizard's feet, breaking the ground under him.

"Congratulations! Your Charizard now knows the best fighting move around," he said confidently.

Y just huffed at the man, relieved that they finally shut up. Pikachu then tugged at Ash's hat to get his attention.

"What is it buddy?" Ash asked.

"Pika pi," he said as he pointed to the other fighter.

"You sure?" Ash asked. "I guess we can expand your move pool a bit."

Pikachu nodded.

"Hey, my Pikachu wants to learn Mega Punch," Ash said.

The second fighter smiled and nodded. He picked Pikachu up off Ash's shoulder and placed him on the ground.

"You'll undergo a similar process, just as Charizard just did," the second fighter informed.

He placed a single hand on Pikachu's head and closed his eyes. His hands grew white and it moved into Pikachu's body until it reached his paws. Similarly, as he let go, the power pulsated and cracked the ground around him.

"Nice. Now go ahead and use it on one of those rocks," the second fighter said.

Pikachu calmly walked up to the rock and looked at his hands. He took a deep breath and got into a fighting position like he'd seen Ash do plenty of times. He drew his hand back as it began to glow white, closed his eyes, and punched the rock as hard as he could. As soon as his tiny fist made contact, the rock exploded, causing fragments to fly everywhere.

When he opened his eyes, the rock was no longer there. He smiled at the result and turned around to see what everyone thought. Ash and the fighter that taught him the move had smiles on their faces.

"Great job Pikachu, that rock didn't stand a chance," Ash said.

"You're damn right it didn't, great work kid," the fighter said as he gave Pikachu a light scratch on his head.

"You wanna give Mega Kick a shot Charizard?" the other fighter said.

Charizard just glared at him and puffed a small flame out of his nose.

"I'll take that as a no," the fighter said nervously.

With that, Y returned Charizard. "Come on Ash, let's get moving."

"Right. See you guys later!" Ash said.

The fighters then waved at the pair and headed towards Cerulean City. Ash, Y, and Pikachu walked in the opposite direction.

"Any reason why you got upset back there Y?" Ash asked.

"Not really. I mean we were having a great conversation and they were rudely interrupting, it was kind of upsetting," Y responded.

"Hm, I didn't take you to be the conversing type, that seemed like more of Serena's thing," Ash said with a chuckle.

"Well you're right, I like to act before I speak, but I don't know, I just couldn't," Y said.

"Maybe she's rubbing off on you," Ash said with a shrug.

"Maybe. Maybe I might be able to take you off her hands since I'm so much like her," she replied with a wink.

"Oh ha ha," Ash said sarcastically. "Like that would ever happen."

"We'll just have to see," Y said with a smile.

As soon as she finished her statement, she realized they were at a dead end.

"Where to now?" Y ask.

"In there," Ash said. He was pointing to a cave to the right of where they were standing.

"What's in there?" Y asked. She already knew the answer but she had to make sure.

"That's Mt. Moon, we need to go through there to get to the other side of Route 4," Ash said.

"A dark cave filled with what I'll assume is a metric ton of Zubat? I'll kill myself before I go through that," Y said as she pulled out a Pokeball.

She let Charizard from his ball and let him stretch for a bit before she climbed on his back. Charizard began to lift off the ground when Ash stopped them.

"So what about me?!" Ash yelled.

"You can go through the cave, Pikachu will accompany you," Y said with a cheeky smile.

"Asshole," he said to himself. "Come on Pikachu, we'll show her."

They turned and headed toward the direction of the cave entrance. Y raised her eyebrow in interest. She felt like Ash was guilt tripping her into flying one of her Pokemon, but he didn't turn around at all. As soon as he entered the cave, she commanded Charizard to fly out of sight of the entrance so she could see if he'd come back out without seeing her.

Several minutes passed and he never emerged. She started to get worried but she didn't want Charizard to realize that. However, he wasn't dumb, he knew she was worried and just tried to cooperate with his best friend.

"Come on Charizard, let's wait by the exit," she said.

Charizard flew to the other side of the mountain and hovered close to the entrance. She saw a Pokemon Center next to it, but didn't think anything of it.

Minutes turned to hours and she was getting increasingly worried. She starting thinking about everything that could've gone wrong inside that cave and she was feeling guilt sink inside her. Additionally, Charizard was starting to get fatigued. He grunted to alert her which shook her out of her thoughts.

"Let's give him 5 more minutes," Y said.

Charizard nodded. 2 more minutes passed and she was on the verge of tears. What if something really happened to him? How could she live with herself knowing that it all could've been prevented? All these thoughts flooded her mind and her eyes got watery.

"Let's go, I'm going inside," Y said as she wiped her eyes.

Charizard flew down and landed next to the entrance. She pulled Charizard's Pokeball out, but Charizard stopped her from returning him.

"I guess I could use the light," Y said.

She nervously walked into the cave. She wasn't fond of the dark, so the light from Charizard's tail sent her a wave of comfort. She wandered around, checking behind her every few seconds so she didn't lose track of the exit.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of coughing.

"Charizard, hold your tail in that direction," Y commanded.

Charizard turned around and held his tail out.

"A little brighter," Y said.

Charizard tensed his body and his tail grew brighter, revealing a dimly lit battered and bloodied Ash Ketchum propped up against a wall. Y gasped and rushed to his side.

"Ash! What happened?! Are you okay?" Y said frantically. "And where's Pikachu?"

"Pikachu's fine, he's in his ball," Ash said weakly. He coughed up some blood and spit it on the other side that Y wasn't on.

"We need to get you some help, come on there's a Pokemon Center outside," Y said. She helped him up, but he quickly fell back to the ground with a scream.

"What's wrong Ash?" Y asked urgently.

"They broke my ankle," Ash said as he coughed up more blood.

"Charizard, carry him, we need to hurry," Y commanded.

Charizard gently scooped up the downed boy and they quickly ran to the exit. Once they emerged from the cave, they quickly ran into the center.

"Nurse Joy! Please help! My friend here got jumped in the cave!" Y said.

"Oh dear! Come on, bring him this way," Nurse Joy responded.

She lead them down a hallway to a room full of stretchers. She quickly pulled one out and had Charizard place him on it. She removed Ash's backpack and handed it to Y.

"I'll take it from here, please go back to the waiting room," Nurse Joy said.

Ash weakly held a hand up to signal her to wait. He reached into his pants and pulled out a minimized Pokeball. He pressed the button on the center to enlarge it and handed it to Y.

Nurse Joy then rushed further down the hall, through a set of double doors which blocked Y's visual on them. She looked down at the ball and saw a lightning bolt engraved on it. She pocketed the ball and pulled out Charizard's.

"Thanks for the help Charizard," she said.

He nodded and allowed her to return him. She somberly walked back to the waiting room and sat down on one of the couches. She placed Ash's backpack next to her and took out the Pokeball Ash handed to her. She looked at the Pokeball one more time and gently thumbed the engraved lightning bolt before letting out the Pokemon within on to the table in front of her.

Pikachu emerged from a white light and quickly shook himself. He looked around with an angry expression, but that quickly turned to a confused one when he didn't see Ash around him.

"He's not here Pikachu," Y said to get his attention.

Pikachu turned around and cocked his to one side, clearly not understanding what she meant by that.

"Ash got hurt. I don't know how he's doing right now," she said as tears came to her eyes. "It's all my fault. I should've just let him fly with me instead of playing hard to get."

Pikachu approached the girl and hugged her. She quickly enveloped the small Pokemon and squeezed him a little tighter than she should have, but Pikachu didn't mind because he knew she was going through some emotional trouble.

Pikachu barely understood what she meant. All he knew is that Ash got hurt. He assumed it was pretty bad because of the way she was reacting, and he knew it was no accident.

 _Pikachu's Flashback_

 _We were walking through Mt. Moon. It was barely lit, but bright enough that Ash didn't need me to use Flash._

 _"She's such a cunt, right Pikachu?" Ash said with a laugh. "I can't believe she's really making us walk this whole way."_

 _I just laughed at the joke. I knew Ash wasn't serious. We've gone through this cave plenty of times, it was like a walk in the park to us._

 _Strangely, we came across a couple of steel cages sitting on the floor._

 _"Woah, what are these doing here?" Ash said curiously._

 _Then, I picked up a few voices a good distance away. I quickly alerted Ash and pointed him in the direction._

 _"Yeah, get them all in there!" the voice said._

 _We peeked the corner and saw 2 figures shoving a Pokemon into a cage. I started feeling angry. Why were they treating it like that?!_

 _"We don't wanna mess with them Pikachu, they have some dangerous weapons on them," Ash whispered to me._

 _"Hey, who's there?!" one of the other people yelled._

 _"Shit, we've been spotted. Quick Pikachu, get in your ball, I don't want you to get hurt," Ash said as he pulled out my ball._

 _I shook my head, I wanted to help that Pokemon no matter what._

 _"Come out! Or we'll use force!" the other voice said._

 _"Pikachu come on! We can't waste any time!" Ash whispered again._

 _I shook my head again. Those crooks weren't getting away without a taste of me._

 _"*sigh* I guess it's the hard way then, huh buddy," he said._

 _Then he clocked me in my nose. Everything went black after that._

 _Flashback End_

Y felt Pikachu's grip on her shirt tighten.

"What's wrong Pikachu?" Y said as she let him go.

She noticed he looked angry.

"You know what happened to Ash?" she asked.

Pikachu shrugged.

"Did someone hurt Ash?" she asked.

Pikachu then started nodding furiously.

"Who?!" Y asked loudly.

Pikachu started rambling on and on in Pika talk, but it was ultimately too confusing for Y. He picked up on that and jumped into her backpack. He pulled out a pen and 2 of Y's lipsticks.

Pikachu jumped off the table and scurried across the lobby to grab a piece of paper. He returned to the table and grabbed the pen he took from Y's bag. He drew a pair of stick figures before putting the pen down and grabbing one of the bottles of lipstick.

"Pikachu, what are you doing with my lipstick?" Y asked.

He ignored her question and began drawing with it. When he was satisfied, he put it down, picked up the other one, and drew something with that one.

He held up his poorly drawn drawing and showed it to Y.

"So a pair of pink haired and blue haired men jumped Ash?" Y asked.

Pikachu flipped the picture to look at it again before placing it down and drawing some more. He then picked up both lipsticks and mashed them into the paper harder.

"Pikachu, you're ruining my lipstick," Y commented.

Pikachu just held the picture up one more time. Y noticed that their hair was now darker and the stick figures now had more 'features'.

"So a dark pink haired girl and purple haired man jumped him?" Y said.

Pikachu began nodding again.

"I get why you drew the tits on the girl but was the dick really necessary? I kinda already assumed it was a guy," Y commented.

Pikachu furrowed his brow, slightly upset that she had mentioned that.

"I'm just saying," she said defensively. "Well I didn't see anyone else when I was in there so they might have left already."

Pikachu put the picture down and drooped his ears, disappointed about what Y just revealed.

"I'm sorry Pikachu, it's all my fault, I shouldn't have been messing around so much," Y said distraughtly.

Pikachu shook his head and tapped her gently to comfort her. Nurse Joy then emerged from the back room and looked around the lobby. Once she spotted Y and Pikachu, she quickly made her way to them.

"Hello, Ms. Gabena?" Nurse Joy said.

"Hi, yes, that's me," Y responded.

"Your friend is doing fine. We cleaned him up a bit and made him comfortable, so he's looking a lot better now," Nurse Joy said. "He was pretty bruised up and had a few broken ribs and a busted ankle, but Chansey's Heal Pulse is working wonders on him, so he should be out in no time."

"That's great! Can we go see him?" Y asked.

"Yes, he asked me to bring you to him."

Pikachu jumped on her shoulder and Y nodded. Y picked up Ash's bag and followed Nurse Joy into the back room where Ash was laying in bed, eating some food.

"Hey," Y said nervously.

She was scared that Ash was going to blame her for what happened. Instead, he just smiled.

"Well there you are," he said as he put his food down.

She dropped the bag and approached the boy slowly and took a good look at him. She then stooped down quickly pulled him into a hug, throwing Pikachu off her shoulder in the process.

"Sorry Pikachu," she said meekly.

Pikachu just waved her off as he jumped into Ash's lap.

"Ash, I'm really sorry for what happened. I didn't think that you'd actually go in, I just wa-."

"It's not your fault. We got a little nosy and things got out of hand," Ash said. "Had those guys not been there, I would've been fine."

"I'm sorry," was all she could say.

"Don't be. I'm kinda glad I ran into them," Ash said.

Y noticed his expression changed. "Why?"

"They took my PokeDex. Said something about Professor Oak. We need to get to Pallet Town, fast," he said.

"Okay, we'll leave as soon as Nurse Joy says you can," Y said.

"Yeah, go find her while I finish this food," Ash said.

He immediately began tearing through the food in front of him, causing Y to chuckle. She quickly found Nurse Joy and asked about checking Ash out because of an emergency. Nurse Joy reluctantly complied and gave Y some forms to fill out for Ash's release. By the time Y returned, Ash was already dressed in a fresh set of clothes, ready to leave.

Y lead them out and into the open field in front of the center. She looked around and noticed it was almost dusk. She pulled out 2 Pokeballs and released their contents: Charizard and a Pigeot.

"Okay guys, we'll be flying an unknown distance, carrying a fragile package, understood?" Y said.

The two nodded. Ash was surprised that they were so well trained.

"Pigeot, those meat sacks right there are your packages," Y said as she pointed at Ash. "Charizard, you know the drill. Fly close to the ground, it's getting dark so focus on what's in front, not below."

They nodded once more and stopped down to let them on. Once they were on, they slowly took off.

"Ash, you lead the way," Y said.

"How do I steer? It'd be much easier than pointing," Ash said.

"Just lean. Pigeot will know what to do," Y said.

"Gotcha," Ash said nervously. "Alright, let's go."

And with that, the flight to Pallet began. It didn't take long for them to see the small town of Pallet. Ash barely moved on top of Pigeot, opting to take wide turns to avoid jerking and falling. However, once Pallet Town was in sight, he encountered another problem: he didn't know how to land. He gently leaned forward and Pigeot began responding to it by diving down.

Ash opted to land at the bottom of the hill that Oak's lab sat and steered Pigeot to the desired location. Once they touched down, Charizard and Y soon followed. Y quickly returned her two Pokemon after a short 'thank you' and followed Ash up the stairs.

Ash immediately noticed the lights weren't on. His thoughts grew grim, he knew that Oak always had his lights on around late afternoon, even if there was still some sun up. He knocked on the door and got no response. He slowly turned the handle and found it unlocked, another fault that Oak wouldn't allow.

They slowly walked in and turned on the lights.

"My God, it smells in here," Y commented.

Ash noticed it too but quickly ignored it. "Let's split up, we can cover more ground faster."

Y and Pikachu nodded before heading off in separate directions. Ash headed upstairs to the living quarters, Y stayed on the 1st floor, and Pikachu checked downstairs in the Pokemon Storage area.

Ash knocked on a few doors and all came up with no response. He started opening all the doors to see if there were any signs of life. Nothing. It was like no one had been there in days.

Just then, he heard Y scream. He flew down the stairs to the first floor and met up with Pikachu, heading to the source of the scream. They saw Y, white as a sheet a paper. They followed her gaze and saw blood splattered on the wall.

 _"Oh no…"_ Ash thought. He rushed to her side and saw what he feared the most. Professor Oak's corpse was lying on the floor in a pool of now dried blood. He pulled Y into a hug and she quickly shielded her eyes from the horrifying sight.

Ash, on the other hand, couldn't break his gaze. He noticed that Oak had his own gun lying not too far from his body.

 _"He knew someone was there. That's the only reason he would've pulled it out,"_ Ash thought.

He analyzed it some more and saw 3 bullet holes in his chest. Without a doubt, Oak was murdered. He looked around the room to see if he could find some clues. Oak's chair was tipped over, so maybe he was at his desk.

He patted Y on the back and slowly let her go. She reluctantly let go, but never looked at the body again. Ash walked to Oak's desk, some 8 feet from where he was laying, and checked his computer. As soon as he turned on the monitor, there was a document on the screen. He read it and had no clue what it meant.

He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the screen, not wanting to touch anything else so that he couldn't be framed for the crime.

"Come on Y, let's go. We need to call the police," Ash said.

Y silently nodded and followed him out the door as he dialed 911. It didn't take very long for them to arrive. They closed the area around Oak's lab to start an investigation and interrogated the two teens on what they knew. Ash didn't mention the incident at Mt. Moon, even though he was certain that the two there were involved.

After several minutes, they were let go. Ash lead them to his house and knocked on the door. Delia quickly answered, not knowing who could possibly be there at this time of night. Needless to say, she was surprised when her son was on the other side of the door.

"Ash, I didn't expect you to be home so soon. Come on in, you too Serena," she said.

"I wish we were here on better circumstances…" Ash said sadly.

"What's wrong dear? Did you give up?" Delia asked.

"No, I came by to visit as a surprise, but instead I was surprised," Ash lied. He didn't want his mom to know that he was just beaten up and came back to investigate what they had done.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"We found Professor Oak dead," Ash said.

Delia's hands instantly went to her mouth. "Oh my goodness! We need to call the police!"

"Don't worry about it, we already did. They're investigating right now," Ash said.

"That's so unfortunate. I wonder what happened," Delia said.

"Yeah… I do too…" Ash said sadly.

"Come on, let's have some dinner, I'm sure you kids are hungry," Delia said to change the topic.

"I already ate. Y, go eat," Ash said.

"Well that's a bit rude of you, Ash," Delia said. "I know this is all upsetting to you, but you don't need to back talk me like that."

"…huh?" Ash asked confusedly.

"Don't play dumb with me, young man. Why would you say 'why go eat'?" Delia said.

"Oh, you misunderstood. This is Yvonne, but we call her Y. She's Serena's sister."

"Don't lie to me, this is clearly Serena."

"I'm telling you mom, this is Yvonne, not Serena."

"Serena, if you're embarrassed because of what you and Ash did last week, don't be, I'm fine with it. I was a teen once, I understand that you start to get curious, if you know what I mean," Delia said.

Both Ash and Y instantly picked up on what she was implying. Ash was completely red, while Y, who had still been a little shaken up by the incident, was now completely fine and looking at Ash slyly.

"I don't follow, Ms. Ketchum. What do you mean?" Y said.

"Oh don't be silly, I heard you guys in the bathroom," Delia said. "Just make sure you stay protected."

"OKAY! Let me show you to your room Y, you'll be staying in the guest room," Ash said to diffuse the awkwardness.

Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder and he quickly grabbed Y's hand and dragged her up the stairs and into the guest room. As soon as he closed the door to the guest room, Y burst into laughter.

"The bathroom Ash? Is that where it happened?" Y said between gasps for air.

"Shut up! It was in the moment!" Ash said.

"Oh man, that's funny," Y said. "So where else did you do it huh? On the roof? Under this bed?"

"I'm glad you're finding my embarrassment funny," Ash said with a hint of venom. "But to answer your question, no where, that was the only time we did it."

Y look shocked. "Don't tell me you took my sister's virginity in the bathroom."

"Uhh… I didn't," Ash said nervously.

"You're unbelievable. Couldn't even have the decency to give her a bed for her first and only time," Y said.

"I'm sorry, okay? It just kinda happened," Ash responded.

"You better hope she liked it or I'll beat your ass," Y said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ash said as he waved her off. "Just go downstairs when you're ready to eat, I'm gonna go take a shower."

She just stuck her tongue out at him and flipped him off as he left. He went to his room and got a change of clothes before going to the bathroom and stepping into the shower.

Ash let the water soak him as he entered his thoughts. What was that cryptic message that Oak left? Was it even meant for him or was it just something he was working on? He wasn't sure about anything, and now that the police had the lab on lockdown, he'll never know for sure.

"I gotta tell the others about this," Ash thought.

He quickly finished his shower and changed into the clothes that he brought. He heard Y and his mother talking in the kitchen, but didn't bother to listen to what they were saying.

He grabbed his phone and turned off the lights in his room before he laid on the bottom bunk of his bed. He opened up the messages app and looked for the group chat with everyone in it. He read the last few messages they sent and smiled, but it quickly faded because of what he was about to type.

 _ **Ash:**_ _Hey guys I kno you havent heard from me in awhile but I have some really bad news_

He sent the message and waited for a response. It didn't take long for someone to respond.

 _ **Red:**_ _What's up?_

 _ **Ash:**_ _Is everyone here?_

 _ **Serena:**_ _yeah_

 _ **Leaf:**_ _Yep!_

 _ **Gary:**_ _oi m8 il shag ya nan_

 _ **Ash:**_ _Gary be serious this involves you the most_

 _ **Gary:**_ _wat iz it then_

 _ **Ash:**_ _Prof Oak was killed_

Ash held his breath. He didn't know how they were going to respond but he knew it wasn't going to be good. It wasn't long after before he got a call.

"Hello?" Ash said as he answered.

"Bro, don't fuck with me like that, it's not cool." Ash instantly recognized the voice as Gary.

"…I'm sorry bro…" Ash said.

"Bro, for real, don't fuck wi- Red, don't touch me! RED! SERIOUSLY! DON- … why man… Why Gramps…"

Ash couldn't help but feel his heart break as he heard Gary beg for his grandfather's life back. He heard the phone shuffle for a bit before another voice took over.

"Hey Ash, it's Leaf. Gary's not taking it too well," Leaf said.

"Yeah I can tell. Please take care of him," Ash said.

"You don't even have to say it. Red's doing his best right now," Leaf responded.

"Put Gary back on the line."

"Okay. Gary, here," Leaf said as she passed the phone.

"Yeah…" Gary said sadly.

"I know it's rough, but you gotta pull through bro," Ash said.

"I know, it just hurts to know that someone was evil enough to take his life," Gary responded. "I swear… If I ever meet the fucker…"

"Revenge isn't good Gary. Just chill out. Come back to Pallet if you need to, I'll be staying here for a few days," Ash said.

"Okay…" Gary said.

"I love you bro, take care," Ash said.

No response came from Gary. He hung up the phone and saw that a few more texts came in.

 _ **Serena:**_ _Omg, that's horrible_

 _ **Leaf:**_ _How was the flight Serena?_

 _ **Serena:**_ _Never mind the flight, how is Gary taking it?_

 _ **Leaf:**_ _Not well, we're doing our best_

 _ **Gary:**_ _im fine im going back to Pallet asap_

 _ **Serena:**_ _I wish I could come too_

That last text made Ash frown. Having Professor Oak, pretty much the father figure in his life, die was bad enough. Not having his girlfriend there was like a nail in the coffin.

 _ **Ash:**_ _:(_

 _ **Gary:**_ _hey im the hurt one not u_

Ash couldn't help but smile at that text. Leave it to Gary to bounce back from news like that. It was one of his better traits.

 _ **Ash:**_ _Lol sorry m8 I just wanna see my bby again_

 _ **Serena:**_ _Aww 3_

 _ **Gary:**_ _well Y is rite there ;)_

 _ **Serena:**_ _I blocked Gary, lmk if he says something important_

Ash heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," Ash said.

Y opened the door and walked in. She already had her pajamas on and had her hair tied up, ready for sleep.

"I couldn't sleep, I'm still all fucked up from earlier," she said.

Without Ash even saying anything, she got in bed and laid next to him.

"I didn't say you could lay in my bed," Ash said.

"That's too bad," Y said.

Ash smiled.

 _ **Ash:**_ _Serena your sister is invading my personal space_

 _ **Serena:**_ _tell her I said to leave you alone lol_

 _ **Gary:**_ _she cud invade my personal space any day ;)_

 _ **Serena:**_ _Gary I swear I'm gonna kill you next time I see you_

 _ **Gary:**_ _i knew i wuznt blokd :D_

Ash smiled again.

"Why are you smiling?" Y said.

"Because Serena said to leave me alone," Ash said as he showed Y the text. He purposely scrolled up so that Y wouldn't see Gary's texts.

"Ha, tell her 'what's yours is mine'," Y said with a smile.

 _ **Ash:**_ _she said "what's yours is mine" :P_

A few seconds later, he got a call from Serena.

"Hello?" Ash said.

"Put Y on the phone," Serena said.

"For you," Ash said as he put it on speaker phone.

"Hello?" Y said.

"Y, I will hurt you if you even think about touching Ash," Serena said.

To Ash, Serena sounded completely serious, but Y knew she was smiling on the other end.

"It's not my fault Ash won't keep his hands off me. No Ash, don't put your fingers in there," Y lied.

"Serena, she's lying!" Ash yelled.

"Oh, yes Ash, right there," Y moaned.

"Serena! Make her stop!" Ash said with a blush.

Serena just laughed. "Fine, Y you can stop now."

"I was just getting started," Y said.

"I bet you were. Seriously though, don't touch my man," Serena said.

"No promises," Y said.

"Y!" Ash complained.

"What, I'm being honest," Y said.

"Behave Y," Serena said.

"Ugh, fine mom," Y said.

"Good girl. Now good night you guys, it was great hearing from you," Serena said.

"Bye, love you," Ash and Y said simultaneously.

"Haha, love you guys too."

And with that, Serena hung up.

"Aww, you love my sister?" Y said teasingly.

She began pinching his cheeks and making kissing noises in his ear.

"Cut it out," Ash said as he moved her hands away. "And yes, I do love your sister."

"You better. So why don't you show me some of that love?" Y said seductively.

"No Y, no more, and definitely not with my mom home," Ash said.

Y began playing with waistband of Ash's pants. "Please? I'll do whatever you want me to do."

"No Y, seriously stop," Ash said as he moved her hand away.

"Come on, I've had a really rough day, can't I at least enjoy my night?"

"You can enjoy it with some sleep, now good night," Ash said as he rolled over so his back was to her.

Y wrapped her arms and legs around Ash as best as she could. "Please Ash? I really need this right now."

Ash sighed. "Are you like addicted to penis or something?"

"… A little bit…" Y said. "I just need it to calm my nerves."

"Then calm your nerves another way," Ash said as he shook her off.

Y popped her head up and put her mouth close to her ear.

"One more time and I'll stop asking forever, I promise," she whispered.

"You promise?" Ash asked.

"Yes daddy," Y said seductively.

"Nope, you made it weird, I change my mind," Ash said.

"Aaaaaaash!" Y said with a pout. "That's not fair! I didn't know you were weirded out by it!"

"Nope, too late."

"Fine, at least cuddle with me," Y said innocently.

Ash thought about it for a second. He felt like it was a trap but he didn't care. "Fine."

He rolled over to face the honey blonde beauty next to him. He couldn't help but be drawn into her beautiful sky blue eyes as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close.

"Goodnight Y," Ash said.

Y closed the gap and stole a quick kiss. "Goodnight Ash."

With that, Y closed her eyes and squirmed around a bit to get comfortable. Ash thought she look peaceful, a contrast to the either bubbly or aggressive attitude she normally had. It made him smile.

"You know, I'd be lying if I said I didn't think you were cute," Ash whispered.

He saw Y smile is the dim lighting of his room. "I guess I do see what Serena finds in you. You might be a complete idiot, but you're sweet, it's refreshing."

"I don't know whether I should be offended or flattered," Ash said with a chuckle.

"Shut up and go to sleep," Y said with a light laugh.

Ash leaned in and kissed her on her forehead. "Fine."

He pulled her even closer so that she could rest her head on his chest, to which she gladly allowed. He sat in his thoughts for a few minutes, going through all the peaceful thoughts that he had. He hadn't had a real moment to relax like this in a long time. Ever since he started his journey, everything turned upside down.

His thoughts were broken by the sounds of light snoring from the girl in his arms. He closed his eyes, wondering whether this would be the worst of it. Little did he know, it was just getting started.

* * *

 **(A/N: Early chapter, woo! I feel like this is one of the better chapters that I've written for this story. I pumped this one as quick as I could to make up for the 2ish weeks that I've been dead.**

 **So here we are now, Ash and Y find out Oak's been killed and they have a solid assumption on who the murderer(s) is/are. Gary is obviously torn up about it and is abandoning his journey to come home. Ash still hasn't revealed the situation to anyone else but Y, but he will in due time. I did indicate that Serena isn't coming back yet, so she's on the back burner for now. I added the part toward the end solely for comedic relief, I couldn't take how serious the chapter had gotten.**

 **I feel like I did a better job expressing the character's emotions than I had in previous chapters, feel free to give me your opinion.**

 **I have a 4 day weekend starting tomorrow, so expect another chapter soon. Until then, review, favorite, follow, and enjoy! See ya!)**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Puzzle Pieces

It's been 2 weeks since Prof. Oak's body was found. In that time, police have come up with no leads to the murder; Ash still hasn't revealed anything to the police about the incident in the cave. In the last week, he and Y have been in his lab searching for anything that the police didn't already find or accidentally clean for the majority of their time. They would occasionally go to Viridian City to see if Ash could challenge the gym, but it has been consistently closed. As a result, the only other thing they could do is try to decipher what Prof. Oak was trying to say in the document he left, which Ash withheld from his friends.

Gary was now on his way back to Pallet Town, unfortunately missing his grandfather's funeral. He had to fly to Sinnoh the same day he got the news, so it was extremely troubling for him to find a way back to Kanto on a moment's notice.

Today is the day he told Ash he'd return. Ash convinced his mother to let him drive her car to pick him up and was now on the way to the port. Y naturally accompanied him.

"This whole murder investigation is super taxing," Y said as she scratched the sleeping Pikachu on her lap.

"Honestly it is. I haven't had a good night's sleep since the first day we got back," Ash admitted.

"It could've been better," Y said slyly.

Without taking his eyes off the road, Ash nonchalantly flipped her off.

"You're lucky you're driving or I'd shove that up your ass," Y said.

"Yeah sure," Ash replied sarcastically. "We're almost in Vermillion."

Y didn't respond but just gazed at the window toward the ocean. Several more minutes passed before they pulled into the port. Ash found a parking spot close to the pickup terminal and turned the engine off, but decided to keep the A/C on.

"So what time does Gary get here?" Y asked.

"Around 1, we have a solid hour before he gets here," Ash replied.

"Ugh, I'm gonna die. Let's go get something to eat," Y said.

"Sure, I guess I could use some food," Ash said.

He quickly turned off the car and got out. Y took a little extra time because she didn't want to wake Pikachu. After locking the car, they began searching the area for some sort of restaurant. It didn't take them long to find the same restaurant they were at several weeks in the past.

"Brings back memories, don't it," Ash said.

"Barely. I guess it should since that's the day I ended up stuck with you," Y replied.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Ash said as he walked in.

Y just huffed and smiled, following Ash into the restaurant. She slowly woke Pikachu, who took a few moments to register that they weren't in a car anymore. He scurried up on to Y's shoulder and waited patiently as his companions ordered some food.

After finally receiving their food, they sat at a booth and slowly ate. The meal was filled with random small talk, as well as Y showing Ash whatever she found interesting on her phone. The meal lasted extremely long since the pair wasn't mainly focused on finishing their food. Once they were done, they disposed of their trash and left the establishment.

Y looked off toward the sea and saw that a boat was now docked.

"Hey Ash, is that the boat that Gary's on?" Y asked.

He followed her gaze and quickly spotted the name of the ship. He pulled out his phone and went through his and Gary's texts to see if Gary had mentioned the name.

"Hmm, I don't know, he never mentioned the ship's name," Ash said.

"Well it's just about time for him to arrive, so maybe it is," Y said as she checked the time.

Ash merely nodded in response, still staring at the ship on the harbor. He noticed that the employees on the ship hadn't started letting passengers off yet.

"Come on, let's go find some place to sit," Ash suggested.

Y nodded and followed him as he walked to a nearby bench. As soon as he sat, he promptly began scrolling through social media. Y just looked at the boy, she was still holding his Pikachu from since they left the restaurant.

 _"This is really taking a toll on him, he nearly forgot Pikachu at the restaurant. On top of that, Serena is worried sick about him,"_ Y thought. _"Don't worry Ash, we'll figure it out."_

Y then loudly sighed before lowering herself on to the bench. It was loud enough for Ash to notice and catch his attention.

"You alright Yvonne?" Ash asked as he looked up from his phone.

"Yeah I'm fine, just a little tired, that's all," Y lied. She knew that mentioning Serena would only distract him from his goal, Serena already made that very clear to her, so she agreed to keep quiet about her.

"It's alright, we'll be home soon and then you can take a nap," Ash said as he looked back down.

"Hey Ash!" they heard a voice yell.

The pair looked to the source and saw none other than Gary Oak approaching them.

"Gary!" Ash replied as he got up.

As soon as Gary was close enough, he pulled Ash into a bro hug.

"It's been awhile, you look like shit," Gary said with a laugh.

"Thanks, I've been trying to pull off the Gary Oak look for weeks now," Ash retorted.

"And how are you Y?" Gary said, completely ignoring Ash's statement.

"Solid okay, could be better," Y said with a shrug.

"I understand. And how are you little guy?" Gary said to Pikachu.

Pikachu just waved him off, clearly not in the mood to talk.

"Huh, tough crowd today," Gary said.

"Yeah, it's been pretty rough, you know," Ash said, careful not to mention the event. He still wasn't sure how Gary was taking it all.

"Well that's a given. Come on, I got some shit to take care of," Gary said.

"Alright boss," Ash said with a light laugh.

The three of them then turned to leave, when suddenly Pikachu's ears perked up.

"What's up Pikachu?" Y asked.

Without responding, Pikachu scurried up on to Y's head and looked in the direction behind them.

"Pika!" he cried as he pointed in the opposite direction.

Everyone turned around and looked in the direction that Pikachu was pointing. They recognized a set of twins looking very confused. The group slowly approached them, trying their best to stay undetected.

"Goddammit Red, I told you to stay out of sight, not lose sight of him," Leaf said as she scanned the pier.

Red just shrugged and continued looking at his phone. He was in the middle of typing a text to Gary. Luckily, Gary keeps his phone on vibrate all the time, so he felt it vibrate and was easily able to set them in a different direction.

"Maybe they're this way," Red said, following Gary's incorrect directions.

Leaf just sighed and followed his lead. The others followed the pair sneakily until Red turned a corner. That's when Gary covered Leaf's mouth and pulled her to him and quickly restrained her; he knew what she was capable of so he didn't want to take any chances.

"Shh, it's okay Leaf, it's me," Gary said as he let her go.

"Gary! What the fuck?!" she said loudly.

"Leaf?" a voice asked from around the corner.

"Well shit, the joke's up now," Gary said.

Red turned the corner and jumped at the sight of Gary, Ash, and Y surrounding his sister.

"Scared me for a second there," Red said. "Hi guys."

"Care to explain why you're here?" Ash asked.

"Wow Ash, not even a 'how was the trip back'?" Leaf said feigning hurt. "Well if you'd really like to know, we were gonna surprise you guys but I guess not."

"Why surprise us?" Ash responded.

Red just looked at Leaf and shrugged.

"Alright well we should get going, Gary said he has shit to take care of," Ash said with a sigh.

Everyone silently agreed and followed Ash. Pikachu signaled Y to move closer to Leaf so he could jump on her. Y came up with an idea and complied with Pikachu's orders. She tugged on Leaf's shirt and signaled her to let everyone else walk ahead.

"Alright, so we need to talk. I need help," Y said.

"Sure, what's up," Leaf said.

"Ash isn't… Ash isn't okay," Y said distraughtly.

"What do you mean?" Leaf said worriedly.

"It's all been taking a toll on him. He doesn't sleep well enough, he barely eats, I don't know what to do," Y said. "I didn't want to bother my sister about it since I know she'll worry nonstop, so I'm glad you guys are here. So please, please help him."

"I'll do everything I can, don't worry about it," Leaf said reassuringly.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it," Y said with some relief.

"I'm honestly surprised though, Y, I thought you hated Ash," Leaf said with a chuckle.

Y looked at Ash's back. Red and Gary were having a seemingly interesting conversation while Ash wasn't even participating.

"I never hated Ash, maybe slightly disliked him for taking my sister from me, but I guess she's in good hands," Y said with a smile. "He's a fucking idiot, don't get me wrong, but he's worth something."

"Sounds like you've been swooned," Leaf said laughing.

Y cringed. "Who says that anymore?" she said as she looked away, blushing. "I'm just saying, if I wasn't a good sister, Ash wouldn't be Serena's by now."

Leaf hid her surprise and didn't respond. The rest of the walk to the car was silent between the girls. Once they reached the car, Gary was getting in the passenger seat.

"Nope Gary, that's my seat, get out," Y said.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Gary said defiantly.

Y just forcefully pulled Gary out, tossed him on the street, sat in the car, closed and locked the door. Gary just sighed and sat in the backseat.

"Where we going Gary?" Ash said.

"Gotta go sort out everything with the lawyer in Viridian," Gary replied.

"Okay cool, that's on the way home," Ash said.

The car ride was silent. Everyone kept to themselves, aside from Pikachu who hopped from lap to lap looking for attention. It didn't take long to get to their destination where only Gary got off.

"You sure you don't want us to come with?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, I'll be okay… Actually, Red, come with me, I might need someone to interpret this lawyer talk," Gary said.

Red just chuckled and got out of the car.

"I'll call you guys when we're ready," Gary said.

"Sure thing bro," Ash responded.

With that, Gary and Red entered the law firm. As soon as they disappeared from sight, Ash started the car and pulled away.

"So what are we gonna do in the meantime?" Ash asked.

"Well I should take mine and my brother's stuff home," Leaf said.

"Alright, I can do that," Ash replied.

Once again, the drive was completely silent. No one was really sure whether it was an awkward silence or just a peaceful silence, but no one did anything about it. Because of this, the drive felt much longer than it should have, making Y extremely anxious.

 _"I can't wait to get out of this goddamn car,"_ Y thought to herself.

She couldn't sit still, constantly shifting in her seat, making every attempt at relieving her stress.

"You alright Y?" Ash asked, noticing her shift.

"I guess…" Y said emptily.

"If you need anything, just let me know," he prodded.

"You wouldn't give me what I need if I asked for it," Y insisted.

Ash caught her drift and promptly gave up with a heavy sigh. Leaf stayed quiet in the backseat, also catching what she meant but decided not to press it. Once they got to the Habarra residence, Leaf got out and brought their stuff inside. Ash and Y waited in the car but soon received a text from Leaf saying that she'd catch up with them later.

"Still wanna take that nap?" Ash asked.

"That would be great actually," Y responded.

Ash just smiled and took her back to his house. Pikachu got up from his spot in the backseat and jumped on Y before she could get out of the car.

"I guess I can't get rid of you, can I?" Y said with a laugh.

They all walked in and went straight upstairs to Ash's room. Pikachu jumped off Y's shoulder and on to the top bunk. Y took off her shoes and laid down on the bottom bunk with a heavy sigh. Ash sat at his desk and turned on his laptop, immediately opening up the old message, encrypted message that Oak left. Y rolled around in bed until she found herself staring at Ash's back. She let out another heavy sigh and got up and walked over to him.

"Come on Ash, give it a rest," Y said as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Lay in bed with me."

"I can't Y, I gotta figure this out," Ash said with a hint of aggression.

"Seriously Ash, you haven't slept well in forever, you won't get anywhere if you don't get some sleep," Y said insistently.

His laptop screen went to sleep and he finally saw his face for the first time in long time. His eyes were bloodshot, he had massive bags under his eyes, his forehead was visibly wrinkled, he looked a mess. His eyes wandered to Y's who clearly had a very worried expression on them.

"Fine, just this one time though," Ash said with a sigh.

Y released her grip and allowed him to get up from his chair before leading him to the bed. The pair got into bed where Y got comfortable trying to cuddle with Ash.

"Hold me," Y said softly.

Ash looked down at her and was extremely surprised. When he looked down, he didn't see the normal lustful look she had when they laid together, but a genuinely distraught look.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked.

"I'm gonna be honest with you, not really," Y said.

"Care to share?"

"I can't really say. It's been really rough seeing you break yourself over this case," Y said. "Don't get me wrong, I know why you're doing this, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt."

"I didn't know you cared about me that much," Ash said with surprise.

Y looked up at Ash, mimicking his surprised look.

"Come on Ash, what do you take me for? An asshole?" Y said.

"Yeah, honestly," Ash said with a laugh.

Y slapped him and went back to laying on his chest. Ash was going to say something else, but the fatigue hit him so hard that he immediately fell asleep.

Ash was suddenly jolted awake by the sound of his phone going off. He was surprised by the missing female presence next to him. He put that off for him to worry about later and answered the phone.

"Hello?" Ash said sleepily.

"Are you really that tired? The fuck have you been doing?" The voice he recognized belonged to Gary.

"Yeah, sorry man, I dozed off for a little bit. You need that pick up?"

"We got picked up 3 hours ago, Y drove your car and got us," Gary revealed. "The two of them said we should let you sleep but I got tired of waiting."

"Two of them? And whatever, I'll deal with her later. Where you at?"

"We're at Red's. Hurry up, we got shit to talk about. Pika's with us, so don't worry about him either."

"Fuck… Alright, I'm coming."

Ash checked the time and groggily got up from his bed and walked over to the bathroom to take a piss. Once he was done, he quickly splashed some water on his face and looked at himself in the mirror.

 _"Well at least I don't look like complete shit anymore,"_ he thought to himself.

He shook the thought from his head and headed downstairs to leave. He opened up the front door to see that the sun was already beginning to set. It didn't take him long to get to Red's house, where he just let himself in.

"About time for you to fucking join us," Gary said.

Everyone was sat around the dining table, aside from Y, who seemed to still be missing.

"Yeah, yeah, go fuck yourself. What are we talking about?" Ash said as he looked around the room for Y.

"Gramps left me everything he owned. Go figure," Gary said sarcastically. "But he left a box specifically for us. I didn't wanna open it until all of us were here."

"About that, where's Y?" Ash asked.

Leaf glanced over at Red and Gary, who both discreetly shook their head.

"She went for a walk with Pikachu, she said she needed to think about something," Leaf replied.

Ash relaxed into his chair, completely missing the silent signal that was passed.

"Okay, well let's open this box," Ash said.

Red nodded and pulled the box from under the table. He turned the box to everyone else and slowly opened it. As soon as he opened it, they saw a folded piece of paper on top. Gary took it off and quickly read it. Ash noticed a very confused expression before Gary just refolded it and put it down.

"What else is in it?" Red asked.

Leaf reached in and pulled out a key with lightning bolt keychain on it.

"A key?" Leaf said.

"Did Pops have a safe or anything?" Red asked.

Gary shrugged. "Not that I'm aware of."

"What the hell is it for then?" Leaf asked.

"What else is in the box, it might lead to some clues," Red said.

Gary picked up the box, flipped it over, and shook it. Nothing fell out.

"Guess it's empty," he said.

"Let me see that note Gary," Ash said.

"I don't know what it means, it just looks like a bunch of random shit," Gary said as he handed it to Ash.

Ash took a look at the note. Sure enough, it was just as Gary described it.

 _"Why does this look familiar?"_ Ash asked himself.

Just then, the front door opened and Y walked in with Pikachu on her head.

"Oh hey Ash," she said.

"Hey, everything cool?" he responded as he put the note down.

She completely ignored the question and looked down at the note Ash put down.

"You decided to tell them about the note?" she asked as she walked up to his side.

"The note?" the other 3 turned and asked.

"The note!" Ash exclaimed.

He pulled out his phone and brought up the picture of Oak's screen. He held them side by side, but the size of the screen was proving to be a hinderance.

"Red, let me use your laptop," Ash said.

"Now hold the fuck up, you wanna explain what the fuck is going on?" Gary insisted.

"Just let me use the laptop, I'll explain while I work."

Gary looked over at the twins. Leaf shrugged while Red signaled for Gary to get his laptop. Gary sighed then disappeared upstairs to get Red's laptop. He came down a few minutes later and held out the laptop to Ash. He grabbed the laptop and began typing out the message that was on his phone.

"Alright, start talking Ketchum," Gary said aggressively.

"Alright, alright. Well Y and I found Oak's body, we were the ones that made the call," Ash revealed. "I found this note on his screen. I think the two of them might be connected."

Everyone else got up from their chairs and huddled around the computer screen. Gary held the note next to the screen so everyone could look at them simultaneously.

"The letters on the paper look like they kinda fit in the blank spots on the screen," Leaf noted.

"I think you're right Leaf," Red said.

"I… In the base… basement!" Gary read.

Clearly he was having a hard time flipping between the notes. Y sighed and moved Gary's hand so it held the note in front of the screen. Ash recognized what she was doing and turned up the brightness so the letters showed through the paper.

"In the basement is the key... The answer lies behind the door…" Gary read. He skipped parts of the note. "What the fuck does this even mean?"

Ash ignored the statement and read the other parts of the note. He tried to make sense out of the note, but it was proving to be very difficult.

"Rotom?" Y asked.

She skipped to the bottom where the word "Rotom" was alone.

"Gary, did Prof. Oak have a Rotom?" Y asked.

"He did research on one a little while back, I'm not sure where it is now though," Gary said. "Why?"

"Rotom can, I guess you can say, possess electronic appliances and allow them to function," Y said. "Is there any equipment he hasn't used since the research?"

"No, everything was used," Gary said.

"Even the basement?" Ash asked.

"There's nothing in there, only old papers he keeps," Gary responded.

"The school!" Red said. "What about the school? He never let anyone in the basement, not even administration."

"Then this must be the basement key," Leaf said as she held it up.

"Alright, let's check it out first thing in the morning. It's pretty late right now," Ash said as he looked out the window.

It was already dark out so everyone agreed to wait until tomorrow.

"I think I'll head home, I gotta prepare myself for tomorrow," Ash said.

"Yo Red, is it cool if I stay here tonight? I don't think I'm ready to live in the lab yet," Gary said.

"What's yours is mine brother," Red replied.

"Thanks man. I'm gonna go shower, see you guys tomorrow," Gary said as he disappeared up the stairs.

"Later Gary," Ash said.

As he turned to the door, he saw Y flash everyone else a sad smile.

 _"I'm gonna talk to her later,"_ Ash thought to himself as he closed the door behind him.

Red and Leaf both let out a quick sigh.

"You think she's gonna tell him?" Leaf asked.

"I don't think it's that serious, honestly, but she should at least let him know," Red responded.

Leaf nodded in agreement before heading up the stairs.

* * *

A few minutes into the walk home, Ash finally decided to bring it up. Y was walking a few feet behind him but he didn't stop or turn to her.

"Hey, you okay? You were kinda quiet back there," Ash said.

"I guess. I'll talk to you about it later," Y said quietly.

He heard Pikachu send a few soft "Pika's". He assumed it was some sort of consolation to whatever was troubling her.

"Alright, if you ever need anything, just let me know, I'm always here for you," Ash said soothingly.

"Yeah I know, I appreciate it."

The rest of the walk was silent. It made Ash slightly more worried every time he turned around; Y was staring at her feet, something she's never done in the entire time that she accompanied him. She always seemed upbeat and confident, her chin always up even in the darkest of situations. Sure, there wasn't ever anything that emotionally taxing on her during her stay, but her quick attitude switch up after discovering Oak's body gave him a fairly good idea of her overall capabilities. He just sighed and decided to press her about it later. The house was quiet when they entered. They immediately went upstairs and into Ash's room.

"I'm gonna go take a shower," Y said.

Pikachu hopped off Y's head and assumed his position on the top bunk. She took off her hat and went into her bag to grab some clothes before disappearing out the door. Ash's eyes followed her out the door. As it closed, he let out a heavy sigh and sat at his desk. He turned in his chair to face the tiny mouse on the top bunk of his bed.

"Is she alright buddy?" he asked Pikachu.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Did someone else die?"

He shook his head.

"Is someone mad at her?"

He shook it again.

"Hmm… Is she… Deprived?"

Pikachu thought about it for a second before shaking his head a third time.

"But she did talk to you about whatever is bothering her?"

He finally nodded. The language barrier between the pair proved to be a worthy adversary. Ash turned back to his desk and turned on his laptop. As it booted up, he didn't know what he was gonna do; for the first time in a long time, he didn't have anything to do. He just decided to open up a world news site and read whatever was on the front page. The first headline caught his attention.

"Well known Pokémon researcher killed," Ash read to himself.

Ash clicked the link assuming that it was going to be about Oak but was extremely surprised when it wasn't.

"Johto-based Pokémon Professor Elm was found dead in his lab this morning," Ash continued. "Not long after famous Pokémon Professor, Professor Samuel Oak, was also found dead in his lab, another seemingly fatal accident claimed the life of Professor Elm."

Ash quickly scanned through the article, noting the cause of death as "mysterious circumstances." This caused him to click on the article about Oak. He scanned through that, noting that he was "found slumped over at his desk."

 _"What is going? He was clearly shot and on the floor. There's definitely some foul play going on,"_ he thought to himself.

The sound of the door opening broke him out of his thought. He read some more of the article before turning around to find Y completely naked with a towel on her head.

"Come on Y, put some clothes on," Ash complained as he turned back around.

"Oh shut up, don't act like you don't like what you see," Y said.

Ash slammed his head on the desk, which earned a light laugh from Y.

"You can turn around now dumbass," Y said.

He turned around and saw Y more clothed than she previously was.

"Well I'm glad my pain makes you laugh," Ash said as he rubbed his forehead.

Y walked over to the bed and laid down.

"Yeah you could say so," she responded.

Ash got up and quickly changed into a pair of basketball shorts and a tank top before getting into bed next to Y.

"Oh, what is this? Will I be getting a treat tonight?" Y said seductively.

She cuddled up next to him and laid her head on his chest.

"Well you've been a good girl recently, I think you deserve something," Ash said.

"You sound weird trying to sound sexy, Serena is in for a treat," Y said holding down a laugh. "I'm probably gonna regret it, but I'm gonna pass on that tonight."

"Alright then, what do you wanna do then?" Ash asked.

"I wanna talk."

The sudden change in tone in her voice caused Ash to look at her. She looked up at him with a serious expression.

"Okay, let's talk."

* * *

 **A/N: Wow this chapter is late. Sorry readers, I put this story on hold after my grades from uni came back and they didn't look so hot. Then I forgot about this story and I only got back to it recently after I got an email saying someone new liked/favorited it, so shoutout to you man/lady.** **Because this chapter was pretty much half complete when I left it, picking it back up had me at a loss, so if this chapter feels weird, I apologize, I'll make it up to you in the next one.**

 **So in this chapter, we find out that the gang is back together and they're all on the case. They've gotten somewhere with what they've found and they're going to act on it as soon as possible. But, it seems that Yvonne is having some issues. Will it get in the way of the investigation? Maybe, maybe not. After this chapter, there's gonna be a lot of changes so be prepared.**

 **Final word, I'm also going to start writing another fic alongside this one, but the two aren't going to be related. This other one is going to be a drama/romance, so nothing like this one at all. I'll primarily work on this story and the second one being more of a break when I get stuck on this one or when I just find extra time. Hopefully you guys will like that too. Until next time, I'll catch you all later. See ya!**


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